I personally make my airships very compact but with multiple small modules instead of single large ones, they tend to burn more fuel but are more resistant to taking damage because of this.
I'd made a full thread about my most recent stuff, but here's a snapshot.
The typical fleet arrangement is between 2-4 of these guys. This is a fairly typical size of ships I use in my fleets, with smaller ships used for static defense instead of actual structures, and larger ships used sparingly as Vanguards in the primary attacking fleets.
I hate tiny ships. Like irrationally.
I give all my ships unique names in the campaign. The names I save them as are simply the class name, and mk #. So the "Grand Respite IV" is the 4th interation of the GR class, but I'll call the ship something like the 'Daemonwind' or something stupid.
Larger ships tend to focus more firepower at the bow, and smaller ships are used to wall off areas to force enemies to stay at range, where the larger numbers of cannons and targeting computers can rip apart most standard npc ships.
I aim for at least 100 m height with smaller ships more around 200 m.
Steel armor, always steel armor. Sometimes steel wall, but only on 300+ m ceiling ships usually (like a bomber - which is super uncommon for me to actually use them)
Go big or go broke, Heavy cannons all the way!
I do a lot of 1 vs 1 and X vs X battles against the Belial and my other designs with constant revisions to fix issues as i see them.
I want to somehow make it easier to support each ship having an unique name. I think it's way more fun when you have the HMS Murder, HMS Stabbing and HMS Porridge rather than three ships all called HMS Murder.
lol @Zarkonnen i was just about to suggest that before i read your post. Expanding however on idea i think it would be cool to come up with your own prefix (is that the term?), so instead of HMS it could be BAS (Bigmanian Air Ship)
Yeah, that could be a thing in the empire settings, I guess. Defaults to HMS, but your choice. :)
Also, one thing I really like is the British tradition of making all ships of a class start with the same letter eg HMS Invincible/Inflexible/Indomitable.
As anyone who has ever fought me can say, my ships are giant. Hell, a friend shit him self first time he saw the turtle. I use at LEAST five coal/ammo stores for large vessels, one or two for small, and for small walkers, one, or two tiny ones. I also tend to use pressurized supendium, mainly as a lining for my ships, causing them to..well, randomly combust. If a balloon is hit, it on the norm causes a chain reaction, breaking the whole ship into dust. Newer ships rely less on these tanks, but they still hold a place in my combat (Aka Blunderbuss class <3 ) But, yeah. My ships tend to be far spookier then they are dangerous.
I think i've recently taken to basic wooden hulls (yup, it's not useless after all) to get 700m high bombing airships and since they can't get hit by anything they don't need any armour! (beating the enemy into submission with imperial trooper marksmanship!)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
This was a question inspired by Zarkonnen's post.
How do you guys generally design your airships and why?
I've seen a lot of variation and would like to see what people have come up with!
(emphasis on 'generally', specific vehicle designs are for the Ship Design part of the forum)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
I personally make my airships very compact but with multiple small modules instead of single large ones, they tend to burn more fuel but are more resistant to taking damage because of this.
Commander, Engineering Corps
I'd made a full thread about my most recent stuff, but here's a snapshot.
The typical fleet arrangement is between 2-4 of these guys. This is a fairly typical size of ships I use in my fleets, with smaller ships used for static defense instead of actual structures, and larger ships used sparingly as Vanguards in the primary attacking fleets.
I hate tiny ships. Like irrationally.
I give all my ships unique names in the campaign. The names I save them as are simply the class name, and mk #. So the "Grand Respite IV" is the 4th interation of the GR class, but I'll call the ship something like the 'Daemonwind' or something stupid.
Larger ships tend to focus more firepower at the bow, and smaller ships are used to wall off areas to force enemies to stay at range, where the larger numbers of cannons and targeting computers can rip apart most standard npc ships.
I aim for at least 100 m height with smaller ships more around 200 m.
Steel armor, always steel armor. Sometimes steel wall, but only on 300+ m ceiling ships usually (like a bomber - which is super uncommon for me to actually use them)
Go big or go broke, Heavy cannons all the way!
I do a lot of 1 vs 1 and X vs X battles against the Belial and my other designs with constant revisions to fix issues as i see them.
Aerial Emperor
Nice :)
I want to somehow make it easier to support each ship having an unique name. I think it's way more fun when you have the HMS Murder, HMS Stabbing and HMS Porridge rather than three ships all called HMS Murder.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Take after the Gratuitous Space Battles naming system!
The names of the ships are the 'classes'/the save files, but every ship gets a randomized (customizable) unique name displayed over that!
In the game you might find a ship called:
Atomic Shotgun [ Super BFG ] (class/what it was called in the editor in those brackets)
Captain
lol @Zarkonnen i was just about to suggest that before i read your post. Expanding however on idea i think it would be cool to come up with your own prefix (is that the term?), so instead of HMS it could be BAS (Bigmanian Air Ship)
Aerial Emperor
Yeah, that could be a thing in the empire settings, I guess. Defaults to HMS, but your choice. :)
Also, one thing I really like is the British tradition of making all ships of a class start with the same letter eg HMS Invincible/Inflexible/Indomitable.
Commander, Engineering Corps
that was a naming convention? wow i totally never got that.
Midshipman
As anyone who has ever fought me can say, my ships are giant. Hell, a friend shit him self first time he saw the turtle. I use at LEAST five coal/ammo stores for large vessels, one or two for small, and for small walkers, one, or two tiny ones. I also tend to use pressurized supendium, mainly as a lining for my ships, causing them to..well, randomly combust. If a balloon is hit, it on the norm causes a chain reaction, breaking the whole ship into dust. Newer ships rely less on these tanks, but they still hold a place in my combat (Aka Blunderbuss class <3 ) But, yeah. My ships tend to be far spookier then they are dangerous.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
I think i've recently taken to basic wooden hulls (yup, it's not useless after all) to get 700m high bombing airships and since they can't get hit by anything they don't need any armour! (beating the enemy into submission with imperial trooper marksmanship!)