[Dev Asks] [Build Needed] Trader ship

[tsunamayo]

Hello there, So I will work on a trading mechanic. I would need a few builds to make it more lively:

Traders ship:

• Medium size (ie 20-40m ballpark).
• Not too much bricks (I dont give a target - the less the better), not too much detail, not too much children entities. If you have an idea in mind and is not sure ping me.
• Systems: No weapons, but a shield is required. Lightcruise and Warp system needed.
• Must convey the fact that it carries goods, and its utilitarian nature. Ie no super sleek or military design. It could have a hold bay for example, with a ramp or an elevator, as to transfer good.
• It dont need a docking port, as it requiring the player to dock each time would be just too painful I think (but you can integrate one if you want)
• Landing gear, but nothing too complex. Just a simple boring landing gear.
• No crazy mechanisms that could break as I update the game.

Edit: All ship needs a gravity system and a teleport station. They need to be saved with landing gear closed.

Bonus ship: smuggler ship

• Run by bad guys or good guys in the lawless outer rim to carry valuable good
• this one can have a smaller container storage area.
• Needs to be and look fast
• A few turrets for defense, but no big ass hard-point weapons.
• Same low complexity requirement

Bonus ship: bank transporter

• you guessed it, used to transport gold and valuable things for the banking corpos
• Must look beefy, but be smaller (ie 20m I think will be enough)
• Can have a smaller storage
• Big shield
• A few turrets for defense, but no big ass hard-point weapons.
• Same low complexity requirement

=> I really need the first one in priority as the player will be able to hail them and do some deep space trading, so depending on how many builders we have starting on the first type would be really great. Other would be used in missions.

I will also post a few more smaller builds related to the trading corpos, I just need to check on a few requirements first. If you are interested you will be able to do a kiosk with the same look as your ship and have a corpo name.

If you have any question please shoot! Thanks a lot to all the builders interested!

[Crimson-Artist]

Will we be able to board these ships? If so then wouldn't an easy to navigate interior also be needed.

Also with the trading system will there be specific items that exist only to be traded? Can they be crafted?

[kynamats]

@tsunamayo I have this small ship that I think would be perfect for this role - I've toned down the detailing and removed about 50% of CE on it, but i'd like to check with you before I strip it down further, since it's a small ship to start with. It has 6x 4/2/2 cargo containers and a small interior. Junco ST-100 Supply Runner (TTD1).zip If it's still overdetailed for your purposes, i'll try to simplify it more?

Edit: I realise it will also need an Antenna added if the intent is for players to hail it. I'll await your response before putting together a final version.

[COMICLER]

Does the ship need to be survival complete i.e. piping and life support

[BigBadKangaroo]

Hi there,

so I came up with a Trader Ship: Trader.zip

I think this could work if this it what you're looking for?

Very small interior, no guns, shields, warp/ lightcruise capable, under 40 meters long, docking ready (even if it's not needed), landing gear included as well as a boarding ramp, logic-wise it's super simple, has oxygen that works and looks like a trader ship to me ... and it fits with other ships that are already ingame (imo)

Stats: 13x8x37m in dimensions 1049 bricks in total 4 CE's 24k shields 102000l hydrogen tanks 11,67ly jump range

[BigBadKangaroo]

So I even got around to build a second ship. This one should've filled the role for the Bank Transporter, however, I'm not quite satisfied with the color-scheme. Right now it's more a regular Transporter, not so much a Bank Transporter.

It is: 7x5x16 meters 846 bricks in total 7 CE's 112k shields

[tsunamayo]

@kynamats @BigBadKangaroo Amazing! Let me check those and get back to you asap!

[tsunamayo]

@kynamats Okay, So first-off this is an incredible looking ship. it does look like a hauler. I love the clever use of some bricks to detail the outside: the hose to make fuel lines, the barriers, the antenna and dome and so on. The interior is so sweet and cozy with the kitchen, the use of stone and wood gives a really nice contrast with all the techy stuff. + 100pts for toilet Man I really do need to resume my review there is so much things to show, like the outside door with the force field, the pilot seat mechanism, or the landing gear with the vent. Of course this won't be seen by the player, except if we add it to a list of blueprint they can buy. Yep it is a bit high on the brick count side but that is okay for this size, you dont need to shave more detail.

=> now the only problem I can see is with the thrusters:

• first off hiding lightcruise and thruster might be nerfed at one point: we should not be able to hide them for gameplay reason.
• Then the pattern at the aft, while cool looking, won't look that good when viewed from afar due to aliasing (plenty of details will produce noise the further away, which is problematic with glowing stuff). I think it would be much better looking with a simple flat lightcruise engine, as the player will view this ship from afar 99% of the time. There is also a sprite that spawn far away to helps the player to see the ship from very far away.
• Also it seems a bit too agile, 250% is too much, I think it is better to stick around 100%. It can be problematic on some PC with low FPS, and it also a bit tricky with NPCs. => @kynamats so I dont if you could touch the thrusters / lightcruise placement a bit? It is such a nice ship I think I would likely give the option to the player to buy it. Also yes if you could place an antenna although it won't be necessary if the ship is only used by NPCs.

Thanks a lot it is always so great to check out nice ships.

[tsunamayo]

@BigBadKangaroo Okay this ship is really perfection as a NPCs ship:

• really conveys the utility / threat level of its purpose
• visually interesting and very readable from afar, with the cockpit, cargo and engine side clearly separated, large antenna and docking port ect. I always like to go like 100m, 500m far from a ship to see how it looks, and I can tell you it looks really great.
• Some nice details on the side.
• great fit with other ship we have in game
• Really love the bulky landing gear
• Great brick count and mechanism simplicity. I could really spawn plenty of ship like this!
• Small interior but it seems functional too.
• Stats wise looks on point

I need to investigate why we have a leak (it doesnt really matter as it is a npc ship). I think I will offer it as a blueprint too as hauler might be useful for player.

@BigBadKangaroo Thanks a lot it is such a really nice ship, perfect for my need. The other one is coming along nicely too.

[tsunamayo]

@BigBadKangaroo we just need to find a name ^^

[TwoNiner29]

Hey @tsunamayo is there a deadline for this project?

[tsunamayo]

@TwoNiner29 Hi, no deadline, I have two ships already, and if I had none I could always use an existing one temporarily to code the system. Cheers

[kynamats]

@tsunamayo Thanks for taking the time to look over it and the kind words on the design! This was originally intended as a workshop ship, I've had it on the shelf for a while awaiting its final polish and this has given me a good excuse - this is why it's a bit over-detailed for NPC. If you don't mind I was planning on putting this version on the workshop as well, but I'd also love for it to be made available to survival players as a straight purchase ingame too!

I've refitted the whole thrust package to be on the exterior only as requested, and reduced the velocity/agility to 78%/72%. It feels a little sluggish to fly manually but the NPC AI seems to be fine with it. The lightcruise rating has been slightly increased to 155% - I feel this is right for a trading ship as it will need to get around the system relatively quickly. I've also added antennas and simplified the engines to look better from afar.

Junco ST-100 Supply Runner (TTD2).zip

I will also mention that interior/hidden thrusters no longer being viable will ruin almost all of my older builds, and i'm hardly the only builder this applies to. (Just me mentioning this on the discord has resulted in #6059 ) Would you be willing to consult with the playerbase when applying this so we can have some input and hopefully avoid having to retrofit everything?

Cheers

[BigBadKangaroo]

@BigBadKangaroo we just need to find a name ^^

I'm glad you like it! So I gave it a name and added the inventory pipes to the second docking port which I previously missed, lol. I even added some minor details. Subtle yet effective.

I call this one done:

LF-300 Skybox.zip

[Uncle-Ulty]

I built this back in 2022, especially based on the guidelines you sent to stellar shipyard discord channel

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2923603425

But I believe it has too many bricks...

[tsunamayo]

@Uncle-Ulty Yeah it is a really amazing ship, I used it in some of my PR shots, but as you said it is too high poly high CE unfortunately...

@kynamats Thanks a lot for the changes! For the thruster change: it is not decided yet, but if I do it I will also add a toggle so this check is ignore for creative ships, so you dont have to retrofit anything just like for every "build-breaking" change I have made in the past to accommodate survival.

@BigBadKangaroo @kynamats So I have integrated the two ships for the next update. You can check the bp here: \Starship EVO_Data\StreamingAssets\Factions\Civilians\Traders The change I have made:

• Added the NPC_TRADER tag.
• Added a teleport station <= this is temporarily, I use it to teleport to the npc and check how it is doing. I will remove it once I am satisfied with how NPCs behave
• fyi I will also do something in code to deactivate the shield screen as it is highly unoptimized.

I will also move to a system where the game will read what is inside this folder to spawn NPCs and stations. So people would be able to spawn whatever they want. Ultimately I will also integrate that with the workshop so we can also have proper NPC replacement mods.

[Uncle-Ulty]

@Uncle-Ulty Yeah it is a really amazing ship, I used it in some of my PR shots, but as you said it is too high poly high CE unfortunately...

No problem, I'm already designing something for you... It's been 14 months since the last build I uploaded into the workshop xD

[SlimSumo]

Hello ! I don't know if you're still looking for a trader ship but here's mine ! :) It as some details but I tried to stay as simple as I could. I called it "Mule" because it's quite small and has a good cargo capacity. Mule.zip

[tsunamayo]

@SlimSumo Thanks a lot, that is a nice ship indeed, it conveys well its use! I like the inverted slanted cabin, very heavy duty look. It no-nonsense and perfect for my need. The cargo bay feels surprise wide once inside! I like the folding mechanism of the landing gear. The mini living space interior is nice!

Have you tried to leave less bare metal area? I dont know bare metal looks unfinished to me, but I guess it is a professional deformation as I get send a lot of unfinished (and thus unpainted) ship for debugging purpose. I am looking to see what other people think about that! I think the interior definitely needs some paint though, like a neutral gray or something. Here it is with some white instead

Cheers

[SlimSumo]

@tsunamayo Hi ! Yes you're right, it looks not that great and doesn't work great with the lights/shadows effects. I replace the steel with a dark grey color. It gives a more finished style. Dark grey gives a more robust look, like "I don't care if I scratch the paint" Here you can see the difference it makes under shadow :

I corrected some details and add some decals on the landing gears to look less blend :)

Mule.zip

[gohunt001]

I do have a ship that fits most of the requirements, however i will say that it is a bit larger than the ballpark, at 53m long, the ship being, my MVS-200 Tantal.

It's supposed to be a mining ship, but someone did give the idea that it could be used to sort of sell/trade the ores it mined directly (makes sense with how i explained it as being popular for independent mining operations), and i could potentially retrofit it/make a variant that's specifically made for handling cargo!

Aside from the larger size, i do have a few other concerns, being that the detailing and greebling might be too much? but i'm not sure, and idk if a brick count of 6104 is too much, or if it has too many child entities... though i could cut it all back if i were to make a specialized cargo-only version.

MVS-200 Tantal Mining Ship.zip

[Uncle-Ulty]

I hope to finish this weekend

(work in progress)

[Tackietacktack]

hi, here a small one. i hope its easy enough. You can rebuild anything you want, or you can tell me I'm doing it for you.

Compact freighter.zip

and if you want i can this one make shorter and delete the hotkey menue and mining turret. Its could be a schmuggler ship has light turrets.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3333950585&searchtext=

[tsunamayo]

Thanks all, let me check all of this and get back to you asap. @Uncle-Ulty Could you send me the wip before you make further progress? I am worried about CE count, with all those rounded and circle... Cheers

[tsunamayo]

@Tackietacktack Hi, thanks a lot! Regarding the first one, I had some issues to start it up, it seems it needs a switch toggle on/off before startup. This is not gonna works with NPC (hence the requirement "nothing fancy logic / mechanism wise"). Also when I finally managed to boot it up it lost all power in a few seconds. Otherwise cool looking! Regarding the second one, it is cool looking but a bit too detailed in term of brick count and CE, so unfortunately I dont think we can use it. It also aliases like craazy! All those parallel lines, you can even see it on the screenshot. Dont forget that NPCs ships are gonna be viewed 90% of the time at long-mid range, so I am sensitive to that. It looks cool otherwise, but maybe with a different use, it seems a bit too heavy and long for a smuggler ship.

Cheers

[Tackietacktack]

Yes, that i have think with the second ship, but no Problem. The first one: Sorry, that i have save with disabled switch.

I have the same low energy problem yesterday of a small trip, i have it often if the warp engine loading. How much warp distance did you want? Its now by 10, but i think that's good. I could reduce the shield its now by 128.000 with 85 s loading time or i reduce the thruster could be a little bit slower, now its really faster for a trader.

[SlimSumo]

Hello, I made this one for the smuggler, it's based on the Mule. Added some small turrets (x4) and weapons on the front and made it pointier (because pointier is faster) :) I don't have a name for it so I just called it Smuggler... Smuggler.zip

[Tackietacktack]

Compact freighter (2).zip more reactor

[Uncle-Ulty]

@tsunamayo, here

TEC New trader 24 - for tsuna.zip

[tsunamayo]

@gohunt001 Hi, I like the design but it look more fit to be a miner rather than a trader ship. No worries I also need Miner ships so I will likely use it too. On whether you think it is too much gribling: A good rule of thumb is to add details to 30% of your ship and keep 70% clean. This way the eye can flow over the "smooth" part and get to the noisy one. Too much detail everywhere is not gonna look too good. In Starwars for example they add extensive gribbling to a few place only, like the side of ship or the engine area for example.

[tsunamayo]

@Uncle-Ulty Hi, you are good to go (if you dont add 1000s of more bricks). CE are fine! Great looking ship that really shows your style well!

[Uncle-Ulty]

@tsunamayo it's practically finished, just adjusting lightning, navigation lights, colors and decals.

Since I already sent you some of my builds, I must guarantee that all of them are aesthetically similar, so the player can identify the faction/corporation based on the colors and patterns.

I made the colored stripes bigger with 1 m sticker in order to render it from big distances, or else the ship becomes all white. Gonna upload it today

[PopkaAkula]

Finally found some time in my hectic schedule to chip in my smuggler ship.

It was a little tough to make something sleek that was still under 40m 😃

popka smuggler.zip

[Uncle-Ulty]

@tsunamayo It's finished

here: TEC - Cruzeiro do sul _ cargo truck.zip

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3357034806

[Dwarf-LordPangolin]

I finished my Trader ship! Let me know if I need to make any changes to it!

Autan Freighter.zip

[tsunamayo]

Okay all I had a look at the ship, really really cool stuff. Let me get back to you! I am so pumped, I love looking at ships.

[tsunamayo]

Hi @SlimSumo so I like this little ship! It is simple and works well. The small living quarter is lovely, the opening on the side make it quite functional, and the landing gear with the wing folding is quite nice. It have a 80s retro vibe to it. Please find a name and I will add it!

[tsunamayo]

@PopkaAkula Hi, so I really the feel of this one, it looks like a fast Smuggler indeed. The shape is interesting, it will look great for afar. The interior is nice with the hammock, that must be the first time I see that! Is that some weight on the floor? Anyway I added a teleport station and a artificial grav to it. I think it might look a bit better some kind of marking on the painted area outside, right now it feels a bit unfinished. But I like the contrast between the painted shell and the darker side. Cheers keep it up!

[tsunamayo]

@PopkaAkula Also please find a proper name too!

@Uncle-Ulty So it is really an impressive ship! It really matches your unique style! The shape is quite unique and with the cargo visible on rear is 100% on point. The engine details are really awesome, the details are interesting and large enough to be visible from a distance. I like all those blinking lights.

Not sure what to think about the fake paint chipping.The paneling work is remarkable, unfortunately due to the way the decal tech work it aliases (make some crazy jagged edges) like crazy from afar. If you do more ships (which I would very much enjoy) I think it is better to maybe use less on that side. Again this is something I talk a lot in my review, but 90% of the time those ship will be viewed from 100m+.

The seat is hitech af, and those amenities in the cockpit really sell the long distance hauler vibe. With the plant, the double size bed with TV and a window! Though I worry if the game will manage to find the right seat to spawn the pilot. The storage bay with the opening mechanism is quite cool too. So many more small idea all over the place too!

Really impressive ship! I saved it with landing gear retracted.

Cheers

[Uncle-Ulty]

I can make a special NPC version with a static seat (not on a CE) and a less wear effect decal if you want. :D

[SlimSumo]

@tsunamayo Hi ! Thanks ! Did you find the small "secret room" in the living quarter ? :) I found a name ! The wings shape make me think of a pelican and this bird can travel for long period so I think it's suits the ship well. And while i was looking at photos of pelicans, I found that Boeing had a project named Pelican ! :)

Pelican.zip

[PopkaAkula]

@PopkaAkula Hi, so I really the feel of this one, it looks like a fast Smuggler indeed. The shape is interesting, it will look great for afar. The interior is nice with the hammock, that must be the first time I see that! Is that some weight on the floor? Anyway I added a teleport station and a artificial grav to it. I think it might look a bit better some kind of marking on the painted area outside, right now it feels a bit unfinished. But I like the contrast between the painted shell and the darker side. Cheers keep it up!

Following your feedback I got what you meant by the top of the ship being a little unfinished. I was trying to keep the level of detail low as well as the scope of the build smaller and I think I went a little too far in that regard. I added some stickerwork to accentuate the asymmetry and added in the artificial gravity and a teleporter as well since I forgot those before.

ship file, with a name now: MFH Halifax.zip

[BigBadKangaroo]

Hi there,

I've finally finished my Bank Transport ship. It has become quiet a chunky ship:

-9x5x15m -881 Bricks -11 CE's -113K shields -4 turrets (maybe too much? I think it's suitable for a Bank Transport) -Build in the same style as my Trader ship

LF-600 Skybrick.zip

[tsunamayo]

@Dwarf-LordPangolin okay I adore this ship. The shape is very characteristic and scream your faction style all around. It is amazing how much you can reinterpret the same code while doing something different each time. It is so clean and readable from afar. The balance between each section is great, it is flowing really well. The side loading bay are great, you should have seen my face when I realize the whole platform was moving haha. I need to give a way to flag those mechanism are a landing bay, so NPCs can activate them. The cockpit is so clean as is the full interior. For some reason the stair are functioning well... Overall really elegant ship!

[tsunamayo]

@Tackietacktack Hi, please put a teleportStation and give it a better name haha!

[tsunamayo]

@BigBadKangaroo This looks perfect for my need! 4 turrets is fine, you gotta cover all side right? It looks on point as bank transport! It really got a truck vibe with the two seater cab and the stair to access it. I am glad I added decals to door, yours look so nice! The details all around is great and really sell the high-tech bulky nature of the ship. The gold cargo really sell the purpose ^^. Really well done!

To all I will be adding your ship to the next update, thanks a lot for the help on this! As it was very successful I will be adding plenty more requirements in the coming days!

[BigBadKangaroo]

@tsunamayo btw I'm working on a Smuggler ship aswell ... actually I've build this a few months ago, but I just now realised that this would fit the Smuggler role perfectly after some updates ;)

[tsunamayo]

@BigBadKangaroo Humm this shape remind me something! Can you send it my way I am eager to it live!

[BigBadKangaroo]

@tsunamayo Well, you're lucky! I just finished updateing it.

But let me give you some more info about this one first:

I can still remember the first time seeing the Skywanderers trailer where the little red shuttle was exploring the galaxy. Since then I really enjoyed this design, but the original BP has become very outdated - functional and desgin wise. So I made a little moc-up session where I reinterpreted this one (with two other ships that I really enjoyed when I was playing Stevo for the first time) back in 2021. About half a year ago I started to do a second rework session for the red shuttle. This time it was supposed to be ready for the survival mode. I added an Arc Furnace and an Assembler to give the player a mobile home vibe. I tried to stay close to the design of the og shuttle, but wanted to give it my own finish. Since then it was just sitting in my BP file and after you started to ask for a smuggler ship, I was thinking on how to get this ship to this role. All in all this ship was nearly done, but I wanted to polish it up a little more and I think it turned out great. I even reworked the complete engine section since we have the new Angled LC Thruster - it works just sooo much better for this one!

I hope this one is not too detailed or has too many bricks or something like that, again, it was originally build for the player not for NPC's. But it still is quite low-spec in regard to brick count, CE's etc.

I think you'll enjoy it!

Corellian Shuttle 1124.zip

Old engines vs the new Angled LC Thruster:

[SlimSumo]

Change a detail on my Mule, I missed a spot... Mule.zip

[tsunamayo]

@BigBadKangaroo Hi, amazing let me get back to you, it is really bringing back some memory! Actually surprise by how wide it is inside! I wanted to redo-it, might still do in my own crappy way.

@SlimSumo How much did you change it? It takes me a bit of time each time to spawn the ship, check everything is fine. Make sure there is teleport station, all landing gear closed, and that the tag is set at "NPC_TRADER" so I can drop in the game as it. thanks