Ship Designer is too complicated

[NUMBERZero1032]

Haxus, the ship designer is too complicated. I personally do not have the time to learn a new method on how to design ships. The old method was as easy as painting. My primary concern is the difficulty of designing the hulls and interiors and less so the internal modules like sensors and weapons.

I would suggest a secondary easy mode akin to the old painting style along side the 3D designer mode, with a choice between the two.

This is practically the only thing stopping me from playing the game because I used to love designing ships so much. Nowadays it is too much of a hassle. I could not in good conscience recommend designing things to anyone else in its current state.

[Rockinsince87]

Honestly...I love the new designer and I'm glad I put aside my feelings and pushed through it. I think you should honestly give it a try. 

I don't want to be "that person" but I felt the same way you did. I played but felt disconnected from the game because of the designer. I did not have the time to learn etc...I'm married and have a 5 year old son who has moderate non-verbal autism who has good days and bad days. I have zero graphic design experience. Well I decided it was time. I sat down and took a day to watch the how to videos by Haxus. 

Honestly the first video will teach you 80% or more about the designer. The rest you can learn in chunks. My first ship was clunky but I love it. It took about an hour or two to make..



Then I learned how to import .stl files (Constitution class on the left)...that opened up so many doors it was crazy. Since doing the hull is hard, the .stl file took care of that. I started with one room and I just can't stop. I talked trash so much about the new designer that I honestly feel bad now. I did the following below just a day or two after the first video. I have zero graphic design experience. 

[danthemanisme95]

The current deisgner sgould stay but I will bump my own idea that there should be a way to turn a 2d sketch of a floor plan into fully functional rooms with the click of a few buttons. One could even import dxf files to accomplish this

[Rockinsince87]

The current deisgner sgould stay but I will bump my own idea that there should be a way to turn a 2d sketch of a floor plan into fully functional rooms with the click of a few buttons. One could even import dxf files to accomplish this

I do agree there is room for improvement like automatic generation of room voids and potentially pathing if possible. The old room types were very intuitive. Perhaps add an option for standard room types and leave customization for those who want it.

Yeah a simple room builder would be a great addition for those who want to build quickly. Standard heights could be set such as 8ft ceilings (2.43 meters) with options to double, triple.

I actually don't see why some thing "like" the old designer could not be implemented as a basic mode. Leave advanced mode for what we currently have.

[GaelicVigil]

The current deisgner sgould stay but I will bump my own idea that there should be a way to turn a 2d sketch of a floor plan into fully functional rooms with the click of a few buttons. One could even import dxf files to accomplish this

I like this idea, but I bet Haxus has a good chuckle when he reads things like this.

[Greydog]

Judging by how the designer reacts to cutting a door or window, I'm thinking there needs to be a bit more work put in before automation of voids and walk paths are implemented.

I had a conversation with him a while back where he said he wanted to implement docking ships together. I'm waiting for that so we can start producing modular designs.

https://www.hazeron.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2621

[GaelicVigil]

So I finally bit the bullet and sat down for several hours today to learn the designer. Gotta say...wow! Once it finally "clicks" the thing is amazing. I hope I didn't just ruin the actual game because I may be spending all my time in the studio now.

I take back what I said earlier. I hope we don't go back to the basic designer, there is just so much more you can do with this. I encourage everyone to jump in and figure it out if you haven't already. Yes, the first time is going to take a good day or so to get the hang of it, but it's worth it.

[Rockinsince87]

So I finally bit the bullet and sat down for several hours today to learn the designer.  Gotta say...wow!  Once it finally  "clicks" the thing is amazing.  I hope I didn't just ruin the actual game because I may be spending all my time in the studio now.

I take back what I said earlier.  I hope we don't go back to the basic designer, there is just so much more you can do with this.  I encourage everyone to jump in and figure it out if you haven't already.  Yes, the first time is going to take a good day or so to get the hang of it, but it's worth it.

Glad you like it! Yes Haxus truly gave us something very powerful. The learning curve is worth it.

[OnePercent]

The designer is extremely powerful, but because of that, it is difficult to get anything done quickly aside from using better 3D programs like blender/3dsmax.

I agree that a lot of systems in the designer need to have automation.

I would love for there to be an in-designer repository where we can just drag and drop complete pre-fabbed "chunks" (like premade hall ways with functioning doors and walk paths, rooms with furnishings and 3D meshes etc) that are both stock designed for the game and player submitted for flavour. Essentially a design exchange but for single pieces of ships that we can just plug together.

Such a system would significantly lower the bar for entry into the ship design process.

[Norm49]

It is complicated yes but it is manly ways to long to do a ship. I was ok with passing 1 hour in the old disinger, I am not ok with passing day in this one for the same result.