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[MrRoboto75]

In the sandbox you should be able to just enter build mode and it'll spawn a wood block to start building with, assuming you're not near anything else.  Otherwise in the block menu there should be a new vehicle option in the same section where the turrets and spin blocks are.  Sandbox also gives you and your ships infinite building resource, but I believe there's a button to turn that off.

[LoSboccacc]

Tried this game out a while ago and after doing the first tutorial(?) mission, and steaming around finding nothing, I went into sandbox to try to build a boat and couldn't figure out how to start one.  Also it seems that there is a need to get resources but I never seemed to need any?   And I hear people in this thread talking about AI controlled boats but I never saw any?  I think I've been playing the wrong gamemode or something.

I think I'd love this game if I could actually figure out how to play it.

you need quite a lot of parts just to get started, but I've thought of something that could help without removing creative freedom. I call it the block, and it's the center of most of my ship. it only contains the basic: naval ai, some ammunition, some fuel, a good engine with medium power.. you only need to add the ship bits and weapons around to get started and, once you feel confident enough, you can snoop in to see how it works and what makes it ticks:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2rxmd1gw1t64y4/the%20block.blueprint?dl=1

[Ozyton]

I got Ninja'd but the image in the above post shows what your first ship might generally look like. Don't try to make it too complicated to start with.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think the easiest way to build a beginner ship is to just build a somewhat large rectangle, give it some depth and a deck (essentially making a rectangular prism), then have a slope going from the keel to the bow's deck. It'll look ugly but it's easy to make and gives you plenty of room to put stuff inside the boat. You're probably going to want to build it a bit bigger than you think you will have to. If you try to make the front of the ship look like an actual ship you're going to end up pulling your hair out trying to get all the slopes just right, so just go with the wedge.

Where possible try to use the 4 meter beams, since they're stronger than the equivalent amount of normal blocks, and they cost fewer computer resources to simulate.

Of course I'm not an expert myself...

Tried this game out a while ago and after doing the first tutorial(?) mission, and steaming around finding nothing, I went into sandbox to try to build a boat and couldn't figure out how to start one.  Also it seems that there is a need to get resources but I never seemed to need any?   And I hear people in this thread talking about AI controlled boats but I never saw any?  I think I've been playing the wrong gamemode or something.

I think I'd love this game if I could actually figure out how to play it.

In addition to MrRoboto75's advice, I'm curious what method of camera movement you're using? There's a 'free' camera that operates more like Minecraft and its ilk, and there's the 'orbit' camera that orbits the piece you're going to put down. Try to get used to the orbit view if possible, and remember that the controls are always listed on the left hand side. Once you start your new vehicle it'll spawn that lone wooden block; you're going to want to add a few blocks to this otherwise it'll despawn, then just build on it from there.

[Akura]

Tank built. To get the ground wheels to work, I had to build an overhanging ramp using alternating 1m slope blocks, then place the wheels on the inside edge of that ramp. Weird, but it worked.

Main battle test was against a DWG-Nessie, an airship with a similar cost to the tank(around 13kmt). I think victory was more due to me piloting the tank(thus repairing it; I should probably shut that off), but it handled the Nessie's autocannons pretty well, while the tank's cannon(225m guage, 5xgunpowder casing, base bleeder, stabilizer fin, solid, sabot, sabot head) cuts clear through the hull of the Nessie.


Against itself(by placing an enemy simulator on the other tank), the high AP of the cannon is apparently the tank's greatest weakness. Experience playing War Thunder agrees - penetration is god in tank battles.

[LoSboccacc]

try more combinations, from 100, to 400mm there are a lot interesting choices for early tanks

400mm could work as aphe

100mm can be a rotary sabot gatling gun

300mm squash head is very effective

[Akura]

In addition to the tank, I just started work on a landing craft to haul them overseas. Most of the important parts are already done, including balancing under load, and docking points for the tanks. It just needs a manual control room, and an extendable ramp for the tanks to disembark from. It can hold two tanks, with or without them being docked(docked is far safer), and still has a very shallow draft(a little too shallow, it interferes with main propulsion).

When I tried to perform an AI-controlled landing maneuver on Eriwick, something derped and and the ship decided to drive along the bottom. Had to pull it out of play(and watched as the OoP tanks hovered over water to their destination). I'm guessing a reef or something, just below the water; I had the set AI's minimum pathing depth to 0m, since it's meant to hit the beach.

[LoSboccacc]

there's a control for the AI that marks a vehicle as amphibious for pathfinding purposes, the ai will refuse to get close to landmass without (unless in combat, then they get stuck like there's no tomorrow)

one thing you could try is to have the ai broadside angle to zero, so they charge to the enemy, then a control block that turn off the ai when terrain altitude reaches above zero and another in the same place that opens the gate and release the dock

trick is the control block will measure terrain altitude under itself, not under the ship, so if you place it higher or lover matters and if it's placed on the nose it will measure altitude from the craft nose

[Akura]

Not sure if the amphibious setting worked or not. I did figure out that it didn't hit a reef, it just loses all buoyancy when there's terrain a short distance under it. It might be caused by the tanks being docked. Reasoning this because the game heavily slowed down, but sped up some when I undocked the tanks.

I'll try setting an ACB undock the tanks before hitting any sand bars or the like.

[LoSboccacc]

the new turret allow for very compact design, managed to build a predator almost to scale

sadly the wheel have weird attachments

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

link https://www.dropbox.com/s/09duin3ps5ppg5j/predator.blueprint?dl=1

[LoSboccacc]

Akura did you ever manage to understand how docking works? I can't get the 'safe angle' and 'safe distance' to work so when recalling the ships they get stuck into the pretend-clamps

https://streamable.com/zc0we

[Akura]

Honestly, I don't know how the safe angle/distance settings work. I didn't touch them. In most cases, whenever I toggle the docking tractor on, the tanks usually phase through the hull.

[LoSboccacc]

recreated the average robocraft hover bot with simple lasers... it's as op as it sounds

https://streamable.com/oartf

[deoloth]

Great... I decided to get back to this after a year(or two?) and I forgot everything I once knew. Tested my old ships to see that they still do pretty well, then spent wayyyy longer than I would have thought taking apart my own old designed ships just trying to figure out what my old design methodology was... also my old aircraft don't seem to steer anymore. Hrm.

Sigh* 75 hours of historical playtime and yet back to the tutorial for me.

[LoSboccacc]

Don't feel bad, I've almost a thousand hours and still can't design an effective cram nor I've beaten the campaign, I just keep losing myself in the designer.

[nenjin]

Don't feel bad, I've almost a thousand hours and still can't design an effective cram nor I've beaten the campaign, I just keep losing myself in the designer.

Likewise. I've designed probably 6 various ships of different displacements that work well enough, but every time I think I'm ready to start playing the campaign I redesign a couple ships and lose the whole night.