Basic Ship Design Guide

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RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

I made this guide because there is little information on the web concerning Distant Worlds ship design, something which confused me a little at first, so maybe this will help some who are having difficulties making good ships. I am by no means an expert on the subject, so any additional advice offered would be greatly appreciated and I will add it into this post. If you spot something I got wrong let me know and I will change it accordingly. This guide may not reflect everyones different views, but I believe it to be a good idea of general guidelines, the only real limit is your imagination.

I will start with some additional information about the ship design window that could have either been missed in the manual, added in a patch, or generally overlooked. I will start at the top left and describe the windows individually going right, then down.

Image
Tip: The above ship slightly does not meet my recommendation for energy output, energy seems to be allocated in the following order Basic Power > Engines > Weapons, however, every now and then one torpedo not firing does not merit the space for another reactor on this small torpedo ship. Torpedos seem to be more lenient on energy than lasers do, this may be due to their slower rate of fire. Regardless, this ship preforms fine.

Role and Battle Tactics Panel (A)
Heres where you specify the type and size of the ship, and what actions it will take during combat. I generally use Standoff for stronger and weaker opponents, with the exception of ships that I want to use as "Tanks", if you are unfamiliar with what a tank is in RPG lingo it basically means a ship that it meant to take the damage that would otherwise go to some more important ship. This is an important section because if you designate a ship to attack a space port, and have it set to All Weapons, it may venture into the space ports firing range and get tore up by their sometimes limitless laser blasters, if you are going to assault a spaceport, bring some standoff type ships, maybe some tanks to clear up the riffraff, but I would leave them behind when attacking a port or well armed base. All Weapons causes the ship to stay within range of all its weapons, Anything I create with this setting I like to add additional shields and lasers, these are the only types of ships I put extra lasers on. Point Blank range does exactly that, charges at the enemy full blast, starbases and space ports also have Point Blank as their default setting, though I do not think it affects their behaviour anyhow if you change it. I have yet to use this setting thoroughly, but I can speculate that more vector engines wouldn't hurt, sometimes even using All Weapons my defensive ships bypass the enemy and must turn around. A Point Blank ship loaded up with engines and wave weapons makes for a nasty tank, especially if its followed by torpedo escorts. The invasion drop down box will tell your ships when to invade, its pretty self explanitory, though, if someone knows the exact specifications of Invade When Clear, tell me and I will add it, I have assumed that it means to invade when there are no enemies in the general vicinity, but it could mean the entire system. The Flee When box determines if you want your ships to try and escape or not, if it is a slow ship, I usually leave it on Never. If you are going to make armed explorers or constructors, be sure to switch this to your prefered setting so they don't run from a pirate with a peashooter.

Warning Panel (B)
Pretty much sells itself, keep in mind though, it will not tell you if you do not have enough energy for your weapons and engines to operate effectively. The information you need for that is at the bottom in the weapons tab. If anything here is red, you will not be able to use the ship, if its yellow, you can but you may not be able to build it, or it may be underpowered.

Energy Panel (C)
Despite being one of the smallest panels, this is one of the most important. Energy Collection is the amount of energy brought in by Energy Collectors, the things that look like solar panels, they will help you conserve fuel by providing energy for your ships during downtime, but only while within a system with a star, and varies as you get closer to the star. Reactor Power Output is the total amount of energy your reactors provide, and Static Energy Use is the amount of power the ship needs for basic operation, this is just what you need to turn the ignition key, not to engage in combat. Excess Energy Output is the amount of energy your ship produces in excess of its basic operations, it is important because in order for your ship to fight to its fullest, this number must be greater than both "Maximum Weapons Energy use per second" in the Weapons tab, AND the energy cost of "Sprint" in your Movement tab, this is one of the things that confused me at first and caused me to make ineffective ships, I would like to thank the people of the matrix games dw forum for clearing this up for me. The way ships function in battle is that when they close into range of an enemy, they will fire an initial blast of everything they can, then begin firing more sparatically, this is why you want your energy output and storage to be more than what you weapons require, if your ship cannot hold enough energy for this initial burst, you need to add more reactors, otherwise the ship will use all of its energy and do nothing except move around and fire the occasional laser. At first you may be attracted to the number by your Firepower, but energy is much more important. This panel will also display your ships Fuel specifications and storage capacity below the reactor information. Fuel units per energy units is your fuel efficiency, this is how much fuel it takes to make 1000 units of energy, this value increases slightly as your progress in reactor technology. In future patches It would be nice to have the Weapons Energy Usage and Engines Energy Usage here below Static Energy Usage, maybe they will add it.

Availible Components Panel (D)
This panel lists all of your availible components to install onto a ship, I believe there is a minor flaw in this panel, it hides all older components of a particular line when the Only Show Latest Components box is checked, while this is exactly what it says it does, some previous technologies are superior in certain aspects, such as Velocity Shards having signifigantly better range than Epsilon Torpedos, so be sure to keep that in mind when designing range based ships. I can't remember if it hides HyperDeny / Wave weapons as well, i'll check that and change this accordingly. You can also click Show Component Guide to receive information about that component line, click the arrows to go back and forth in the technology tree and it also shows what resources are required to manufacture that component.

Design Components Panel (E)
This is the list of components in your current design, nothing much to it. Click Show Construction Summary to get a list of components and required resources for the ship. Add and remove components with the arrows to the left. One thing that bothers me about these two windows is that they will auto center putting the selected component at the top, annoying when dealing with multiples. I would love it if in the next patch they simplified this with a "Group Multple Components" checkbox. Because of this be sure to click on the bottom most component when removing, otherwise you may unintentionally remove something you wanted.

Movement Panel (F)
A nice little display telling you about the propulsion of your ship and its energy requirements, pay attention to this when adding reactors as you can easily overlook adding enough energy for your ship to move like it wants, this energy information is not included in Static Energy Usage. Impulse is the speed of your ship when its out of fuel, Cruise is its normal speed when moving around or doing small tasks, Sprint is how fast your ship moves when intercepting enemies or running away, Hyper is its speed when preforming a hyperspace jump, it does not increase with more hyperdrives. Acceleration increases with the number of engines and Turn Rate increases with more vector thrusters, all values in this panel will decrease as the size of your ship goes up, with exception to the energy requirements, which will change as you add or remove engines. For most medium sized ships, I try to keep the cruise at 15-20, some like to make them faster, the sky is the limit on speed specialist ships, depending on how small and fast you can make them while still being effective. When redesigning colony ships, be sure to give it enough engines, if you strip it down, it can take an eternity to move the small distance from its jump destination to the planet. You can make defensive ships with a speed of 1 to patrol important locations, but keep in mind they may jump across the system for one reason or another, with no hope of catching any invasion ships.

Industry Panel (G)
Displays logistical information about your ship or base. If someone is more knowledgable on manufacturing components let me know and I will put it here, the Galactopedia says to put 1 of each type of manufacturing component per construction yard. Other values here are pretty self explanitory, if I discover anymore useful information i'll add it here.

Component Detail Panel (H)
Information on the currently selected component, gives much of the same information that can be found by clicking the Show Component Guide button.

Weapons Panel (I)
Lists all of the weapons you have installed onto your ship, to the right it will tell you the total firepower of your ship, its shortest and longest ranges, and additional offensive values and modifiers. Shortest range does not mean your ship cannot attack within that range, it is simply the max range of your shortest range weapon. Targeting is the value of your ships computer modifier. Be sure to add enough reactors to cover the Maximum Weapons Energy use per second value. One troop equals 100 units.

Defense Panel (J)
Shield and Armor values are self explanitory, recharge rate is affected by the number of shields you have installed and the level of technology you have achieved in shielding components, this value also stacks with additional shield components. Reactive armor strength is the amount of damage your armor can nullify, additional damage will affect your ships armor, unlike shields, reactive armor values do not stack and are solely dependant on your armor technology. Countermeasures is the value of your ships ECM. Stealth Visibility Range is a topic that is thoroughly explained in the Galactopedia, the basic formula is "Visibility Range = ( Stealth Rating / Ship Size ) X 50%", I won't go into the details as its already pretty well explained, but basically it depends on the size of your ship and the level of your stealth component, stealth values do not stack. Damage Reduction and Repair Component are the values for your Damage Control and Repair Bots components respectively, Damage Control values do not stack.

General Tips and Guidelines
- Always make sure you provide enough energy for your design.
- Solar Collectors will help you conserve fuel for ships that have a lot of downtime, this varies due to the distance from a star, if your ship is not near a star, no energy is collected.
- Smaller ships turn much faster and move much quicker.
- Torpedo ships will help you destroy space ports and defensive bases, among other things.
- Carry bombardment weapons on ships that also carry troops, if a planet has too many troops for you to handle, nuke em! Everyone will hate you, but you will have a better 4th of july.
- Mount weapons on your valuable constructors and exploration ships to avoid having to build seperate combat ships to cover them, or having to run away from an 8 firepower pirate ship.
- Civilian ships can only carry one weapon, make it a torpedo and give it some engines.
- Be sure to give colony ships, cargo transports, and constructors enough movement for normal space travel.
- Don't overlook the vectoring thrusters, as your ships will first charge straight to their desired range then attempt to turn.
- Ships will Alpha Strike with everything they can when they come within range, give them enough energy production and storage to do this properly.
- The generally accepted "best" ship seems to be a fast torpedo ship. Same as most 4x space strats, on a side note, the Soviet Navy also put its faith in this concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osa_class_missile_boat)
- It may be profitable to strip the games default small space port to just the basics with a few docks so cargo ships will collect more valuable resources cheap.
- Build an Industrial Base, a station with the sole purpose of industrial research to make bigger ships faster, this could double as your military shipyard, if a black hole or research boosting special is nearby, it pays to build your labs here.
- Maintenance costs will kill you if you let it, as I get more tips on maintenance I will post them here
- Pirates will copy your ship designs up to the Destroyer class.
- Escorts default AI will cause them to... well, escort. Automated, they will escort other ships and not leave the system to attack enemies, unlike the other combat ship roles.
- Make some heavily shielded troop ships to do nothing but raid enemy planets, if you are successful, you will take control of any enemy spaceports or bases still orbiting the planet.
- As of patch 1.0.4.5, I do not believe resupply ships will resupply anything, apparently this will be fixed in the next patch.

Eventually I will post some designs I like here, or others designs I will copy and paste to this first post if it gets stickied, for now though, im done writing.

ES7 LR6 (The above ship)
Basic slow granny torpedo escort with sensors, if the AI made these, the game would be little more challenging, pirates will though.
1x Combat Computer
1x Command Center
1x ECM
1x Prox Array
2x Hab Module
2x Life Support
6x Epsilon Torpedo
1x Reactor
1x Hyperdrive
4x Engine
3x Armor
4x Fuel Cell
1x Shield
4x Thrust Vector

ES7 VR3
Same as ES7 LR6, except speed/range based for dealing with faster ships, fishmans recommendation. Engines doubled, torpedos halved. Keep one handy in case you need to buttorp the klingon armada. All jokes aside, speed is a very important factor in torpedo ships.
1x Combat Computer
1x Command Center
1x ECM
1x Prox Array
2x Hab Module
2x Life Support
3x Velocity Shard
1x Reactor
1x Hyperdrive
8x Engine
3x Armor
4x Fuel Cell
1x Shield
4x Thrust Vector

Thanks to Fishman, Erik Rutins, exelsiar, VarekRaith, and Astorax for bringing me up to speed on the energy systems of ships as well as some other info.

Have fun and happy hunting.
Astorax
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Astorax »

"- It may be profitable to strip the games default small space port to just the basics and use it to collect valuable resources cheap."

Not sure what you mean here, mate. A spaceport doesn't collect resources at all, beyond maybe research if you leave those on. A Gas Mining Base or a Mining Base collects resources from planets/asteroids and I do redesign those to mine more, have more cargo and weapons/defense.

"- If you do not start with an already advanced empire and begin colonizing quickly, your first primary space port will get bogged down with civilian construction orders at first, it might pay off to create a port or base with the sole purpose of constructing military ships.
- Build an Industrial Base, a station with the sole purpose of industrial research to make bigger ships faster, this could double as your military shipyard. "

It doesn't matter what you build or where you build it, if it has building capabilities, the PRIVATE sector will build their ships there, regardless of whether you want to just build military ships or not. The only thing you can really do is to have more SY's on it so there are more slots to build with.

Edit- Oh, I just realized what you meant about the Industrial Base for research. Actually, the very best way to maximize research in all fields with the least amount of bases/maintenance is to design one SuperLab Base and build it at a BlackHole. Supernovae are good secondary targets if no BH's are in your general stellar neighborhood. A BH will magnify the research done there by like 600% or something? I forget, its a lot though. One base with like 5-10 of each type of research lab on it will last you till the midgame or beyond. The only thing is the placement can be a bit tricky, heh.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Cargo ships will move resources quicker if you have a space port at the colony? was I wrong about this?

In my experience, the primary spaceport has always queued up a lot of civilian ships quickly, either way, I'll remove this tip.

True about the black holes, i'll add it, so far i've only seen them with 200% I think, still a big boost
Astorax
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Astorax »

Ahh, I see what you mean. Yeah, a planet by itself can only allow one ship to dock at a time. A spaceport with multiple docks speeds that up, true enough.
DasTactic
Posts: 1339
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:16 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by DasTactic »

Great post!!! [:D]

Couple of questions:

1. Are ship classes of any real use other than for clasification? It seems you can build an escort or a cruiser with the same components

2. When designing a fleet, do you try to balance different ship roles or do you tend to make specialist fleets? Eg. A fleet of tank ships and a different fleet of torpedo ships?
Astorax
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Astorax »

Das123, there is absolutely no difference between ship classes EXCEPT for default AI uses for them. Escorts default to (who knew) escort freighters and such around and in-system defense. AFAIK, escorts *will not* jump out of the system they are in unless its escorting something. I.E.- If pirates are attacking in the next system over, an escort will not, by itself, hyper jump there and attack. Frigates and up will. Escorts, therefore, are perfect if you want to keep a force in just that system.

I, however, do not ever make an Escort, Frigate or a Destroyer class vessel because pirates will copy your designs for those and use them again you. I just redesign my Capital Ship and use that. You could also use the Cruiser.

I tend to have one killer ship design and a troopship in my attack fleets, thats it.  Specialist ships such as trade interdictors (fast ships with hyperdeny weapons) are fun, too.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

So far I haven't seen anything that makes a frigate any different from a destroyer or other ship of the type, I read somewhere in future patches they are going to add size limitations for them though.

I usually try to make fleets with ships that complement each other, the effectiveness of this depends I suppose. Sometimes I just throw together a bunch of torpedo ships as a kind of patrol group. I like to make ships with multiple roles, I have yet to make a true troop transport, I just add a couple of troop components on every large ship in an attacking fleet. Most of the time small fast torpedo escorts for doing the dirty work in open space, and varying larger destroyers and cruisers for long range planet attacking and tanks. Interesting question, I should write more about it, though I don't want to step on anyones toes as to what a good fleet is, sometimes I tend to make them according to what I think is realistic.

edit: oops repeat awnser, thx for the info on ship roles astorax, seems I have much more to add to this guide
Astorax
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Astorax »

RSF777, there is a really useful role for a heavily shielded troopship with very few (if any weapons) and that use is this:

Screw everything, full speed to the planet and drop troops!

If you can get your troops on the planet fast enough and take over the planet, you get not only the planet but the space port as well, without having to kill it because once the planet falls you ..inherit the space port for free! That, as you might imagine, is pretty useful and pleasingly efficient.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Nice! I did not know that about spaceports, and here i've been painstakingly destroying every one of them, I'll add it to the tips. Does this also work with other bases like defensive bases as well?
Astorax
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:50 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Astorax »

AFAIK, any base that is orbiting the colony well flip if you invade successfully.

Also, a minor correction in your guide: Pirates won't copy all your ship designs, just the Escort, Frigate and Destroyer ones. I've never seen a pirate Cruiser much less a Capital Ship.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Cool thanks, added. Seems like there should be a type of base or component that prevents troopships from capping planets and stealing bases so easy. Too bad there is no component modification, I also though of one writing this guide that would improve fuel efficiency.
DasTactic
Posts: 1339
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:16 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by DasTactic »

Another question for the gurus please...

The AI tends to default to designing its own ships and won't upgrade your designs automatically. Which means when you first design an Escort the AI (I think) will use that as the default until it is superseded with the next version of its laser design. Is there a way to get the AI to switch its auto-update to your design over its own?
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Not sure about that one, I haven't used auto ship design yet. I'll put it up top when someone answers it though.
Fishman
Posts: 795
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:56 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Fishman »

This ship is way too slow. Kaltors and other horrible creatures run at speeds of 35-40, and if you can't outrun them, you're now entirely dependent on the stopping power of your guns to shoot them down before they get you. MOAR ENGINES! You drive like an old granny!
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Its a bit slow I guess, but they are cheap and will destroy anything I have met so far, including kaltors. Would like me to rename it to Slow Torpedo Escort?

edit: lol renamed
Fishman
Posts: 795
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:56 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Fishman »

Well, the thing is, destroying "anything" is not enough. Your goal is not to destroy "anything". Your goal is to destroy EVERYTHING. The idea is to design a ship that is capable of taking down anything and everything you could possibly encounter at that point in the game. If the freaking Klingon Armada shows up, I expect that ship to be able to hold it off and WIN. And that is why speed is important: Against a vastly overpowering force, it will turn into a buttorp fight. In a buttorp fight against the Klingon Armada, if you cannot outrun your opponent, you are toast. Think "Spathi Eluder" and why the Spathi Eluder is one of the most annoying things you'll ever face. The NUMBER of weapons you have is almost entirely irrelevant. For instance, this ship would get its ass handed to it by a ship with, say, 50 speed and only 2 torpedo tubes. SPEED IS LIFE! Never forget this.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

Does this game use netrek physics in the sense that torps gain range while you and your enemy are traveling in the same direction?

And won't both ships, assuming the level of tech is the same, attempt to stay at the same range of each other? Though im not sure what tech level the klingon armada is.

lol, yea I know, faster torpedo ships are better, its in the tips. Against AI though, this one has done well for me and serves as a good example for the guide.
Fishman
Posts: 795
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:56 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Fishman »

ORIGINAL: RSF777

Does this game use netrek physics in the sense that torps gain range while you and your enemy are traveling in the same direction?
That's correct. It's not actually that the torps gain range, but that the torpedo launch speed does not inherit any of the firing ship's speed. Therefore, torps fired opposite the direction of travel will fly further relative to the launching ship and close faster with a pursuer than torpedoes fired in the same direction of travel, at the pursuee.
ORIGINAL: RSF777

And won't both ships, assuming the level of tech is the same, attempt to stay at the same range of each other? Though im not sure what tech level the klingon armada is.
We're assuming the Klingon Armada is "not significantly more advanced than you", because if they are, they have better-ranged torps and engines, and you're just screwed. So, assuming they both attempt to stay at the same range, the outmatched force will be the pursued, and therefore, will be able to hold max range and buttorp out of the reach of the pursuing fleet, slowly shredding them one by one.
ORIGINAL: RSF777

lol, yea I know, faster torpedo ships are better, its in the tips. Against AI though, this one has done well for me and serves as a good example for the guide.
The AI shipbuilding program is generally much more aggressive than the human's, so if you are fighting the AI, you will almost certainly be outnumbered, and if you have not hit the point of tech superiority, probably outgunned as well. If you HAVE hit the point of tech superiority, you won't be using KTX-3Ks, and will probably have something more worthy, like Vshard/VshardHT/PT/PTMX. Note: The AI is quick to abandon the Vshard series for the next successor weapon, as Vshards have crappy ROF and therefore DPS, but RANGE IS LIFE. The fact that I will continue to deploy an inferior DPS Vshard or Vshard HT against KTX-5Ks or Black Rains, against the advice of the AI, should be evidence that range+speed based design is a very important concept. The kicker being that a range edge becomes meaningless if you are not simultaneously maintaining a speed advantage.
RSF777
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 6:33 am

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by RSF777 »

I know they don't actually gain range, just an easy way to explain it. I have only used that ship in groups and outgunned everything I have fought so far, nothing mobile has survived several torp globs from a group of these, thats why its not build for speed and it uses KTXs, they are slightly longer range than the AI starbases and space ports lasers as well which don't move or buttorp, its built for a purpose and serves it well. If I came across something that forced me into a buttorp fight, I would of course make a ship to counter it. If you like, post your ideal torpedo ship and I will list it above.
Fishman
Posts: 795
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:56 pm

RE: Basic Ship Design Guide

Post by Fishman »

"Ideal" torp ship really depends on your tech level, but the best torp ship is basically "longest range, fastest drives, enough shielding to bug out if something pops up". It should be significantly faster than anything you have encountered previously. A small speed edge isn't enough. It needs enough firepower to easily overcome regeneration on the heaviest shields, but not by sacrificing range: If you start sacrificing range, it stops being a torpship and turns into a heavy combatant, as you need to now fit greater shields to survive closing and even bigger engines to close with, which makes the ship that much bigger.

Finally, you're building it as an escort, so...make sure it's not top of the line (not a problem in your case, all of your items are low-tech), as you're going to have to shoot it down later. If you build it with best-tech, you won't be able to shoot it down later, and even mid-tech starts to become annoying, so escort/destroyer/frigates are best constructed only early in the game, and then decommissioned completely later on. Unless you're playing the "buy all pirates" strategy.
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