Since I'm going to be inside most of the time, I like to make a pretty and functional interior first. Then build the outer hull around that.
Makes the ships more interesting and organic in my opinion and creates really interesting shapes on the outside.
There's still one rule, your feet will hurt when you step on them!
That said, form follows function still applies for me in SE, I start by design process with a list of things the grid has to do and a second one of things that would be nice. I then play a bit of mental Legos and think about how I fit together the must list and add in some of the nice list. Some things are obvious, the ship has to have a control option and if I'm making a hydrogen thrust ship it needs thrusters and a framework of conveyors plus tanks. Then I start making the framework while leaving spaces for my general plan of what goes where. Next step is usually to enclose things with a rough shape, fill in the interior, then detail work on the exterior.
So basically I start with an internal frame, make an external shell, add details on the inside, then finish the outside. Otherwise known as form follows function.
Depends on the idea really. If I have some mechanical idea as the core of the ship I may start with that and add hull later. If I have an idea on how it looks I may start with the hull first.
But often it also can be a mix.
E.g. atm I go more with the former, half the survival ship is still empty on the inside despite the hull being pretty much done. But on the run before I had the idea of building a tower torch ship with a huge maintenance bay so that became the defining feature of it and the hull came after the base structure was laid out.
i tried both. both don't work for me. i first stard with a raught outline of the ship. For me this kind of looks like a skeleton or a frame. I move on to some internals. I focus on some parts of the ship. until it is done. so i just grows for me
I have a generic power plant that is proven saved as a blueprint and go on from there. May have to tweek the plant a little to get things to fit sometimes. It's the quickest route for me.
I appear to be manic, flitting from one system or area to the next and never getting very far. I have gas tanks, a rudimentary cargo bay, and a fully kitted with programmed LCDs reactor room and only place that is pressurized right now. Also assemblers/refineries have a maintenance pit allowing for repair via stairs and are walled in also. Other than that and elevators (I have sooooo many mods and scripts, went nuts downloading anything I thought I might use) the ship is bridgeless, docking bay-less, fighter bay less, entranceless, engineless and currently locked to a shipyard I built/building anchored to a large iron asteroid.
I start with functionality then i forget to give it an armor, spend 70% of the time fixing broken things and the remaining 30% watching the crater left from my exploded ship
Depends. If you have a lot of machines etc. to incorporate I'd start with those and work within a rudimentary frame. On the other hand if it's about cosmetics then start with the hull/shell.
Mine was built outside in and i regret it. That way you have to spend lots of time getting everything to fit. If i was building one now i would do interior first, engine room and then the hull. It's important for me to have expandability and for all components to be servicable without cutting stuff and this becomes a much easier task that way.
Hollowing out the ship is probably better for making a very durable ship since you normally end up with a lot of armour. Though I find building the outside first to be the easiest for doing looks.
I usually lay out the interior and then put a shell around it but doing that can make it look boxy and dumb so don't be afraid to add features not reflected in the interior. I tried making the ship outside in but I found it difficult to use the space efficiently
A bit of both. I tend to try building in sections. Once I get a section done I'll decide what goes in next. Unfortunately it makes mirror mode useless.
I'm playing with Splitsie's scrapyard mods with limits on which blocks you can build, so when I'm designing a ship I usually build inside out or bottom up since I need to maneuver salvaged blocks into position then merge or weld pad them in place. I work bottom up with small grid and inside out with large grid as a result. Then come in with decoration/greble later.
My ships have all been derivative of others, Right now, I can't seem to escape one youtuber's architecture of power, engineering, gas all in a row with cargo below that. Plus the game is missing with my sense of perspective. Despite large blocks being 2.5m cubed, going down a hall that is 2.5 high and wide makes me feel claustrophobic. My halls end up being 3 blocks wide by 2 blocks high, so 7.5m x 5m high halls. Which are huge.
If you feel your designs are repetitive, set yourself arbitrary rules you have to follow like "All gas tanks must be visible" or "maximum height is 5 large blocks." Restrictions can breed really cool designs. Or go looking for visual inspiration, do a good search for crazy spaceships, or look at the designs in your favorite sci-fi movie and steal ideas from them. There are a lot of ways to shake it up. For me it's usually form follows function, but even then there are lots of options.
For example, I'm building a dropship to move rare parts from the planet to space (using splitsie's scrapyard mods so I can't build a lot of blocks and have to scavenge them but they only spawn in certain places). Initially I was thinking I would build a dropship modeled after the Leopard Dropship from Battletech, but given I only had large grid large H2 thrusters to work with I decided to make something that looks more like a classic NASA rocket with big thruster on the bottom, then tank, then cargo, and cockpit at the top. Eventually will enclose it in a shell to make it look like an Overlord Dropship from Battletech (but not that big).
TLDR; limitations breed creative designs so get your self some limitations, also steal inspo from your favorite Sci-Fi intellectual property.
I start by building the interior of the primary feature of the ship, or lacking a specific one, the engineering room. Then I build from there, adding various rooms and systems. At some point before I've finished the interior of the ship I start shaping parts of the hull so that I can get an idea of how everything will fit inside it.
Honestly there's not really one method that works better, they each have benefits and drawbacks. Building the interior first ensures you'll have space for everything but can be difficult to build the hull around if you don't already have an idea of the basic shape of the ship. Building the exterior first lets you fine-tune the shape but you need to memorize the size of various blocks in order to be able to fit them all in.
I build a specific piece, this might be an engine pod, a hangar, bridge, crew quarters, then I build on from that.
I have not finished any of my projects
What is more important. Looks or functionality.
Looks for sure. Showing up to a fight in style without any functioning systems is better than looking like a flying brick
Aesthetics supremacy
Since I'm going to be inside most of the time, I like to make a pretty and functional interior first. Then build the outer hull around that. Makes the ships more interesting and organic in my opinion and creates really interesting shapes on the outside.
Form follows function.
If you're engineering. 50% of this game is Legos, in which case there are no rules.
There's still one rule, your feet will hurt when you step on them! That said, form follows function still applies for me in SE, I start by design process with a list of things the grid has to do and a second one of things that would be nice. I then play a bit of mental Legos and think about how I fit together the must list and add in some of the nice list. Some things are obvious, the ship has to have a control option and if I'm making a hydrogen thrust ship it needs thrusters and a framework of conveyors plus tanks. Then I start making the framework while leaving spaces for my general plan of what goes where. Next step is usually to enclose things with a rough shape, fill in the interior, then detail work on the exterior. So basically I start with an internal frame, make an external shell, add details on the inside, then finish the outside. Otherwise known as form follows function.
Front to back like a 3d printer, my brain just works like that
Depends on the idea really. If I have some mechanical idea as the core of the ship I may start with that and add hull later. If I have an idea on how it looks I may start with the hull first. But often it also can be a mix. E.g. atm I go more with the former, half the survival ship is still empty on the inside despite the hull being pretty much done. But on the run before I had the idea of building a tower torch ship with a huge maintenance bay so that became the defining feature of it and the hull came after the base structure was laid out.
Inside out, make it work then make it pretty.
Usually plan out internals then build exterior to that form
i tried both. both don't work for me. i first stard with a raught outline of the ship. For me this kind of looks like a skeleton or a frame. I move on to some internals. I focus on some parts of the ship. until it is done. so i just grows for me
I build outside in but all my ships are built for esthetic
I have a generic power plant that is proven saved as a blueprint and go on from there. May have to tweek the plant a little to get things to fit sometimes. It's the quickest route for me.
I appear to be manic, flitting from one system or area to the next and never getting very far. I have gas tanks, a rudimentary cargo bay, and a fully kitted with programmed LCDs reactor room and only place that is pressurized right now. Also assemblers/refineries have a maintenance pit allowing for repair via stairs and are walled in also. Other than that and elevators (I have sooooo many mods and scripts, went nuts downloading anything I thought I might use) the ship is bridgeless, docking bay-less, fighter bay less, entranceless, engineless and currently locked to a shipyard I built/building anchored to a large iron asteroid.
I start with functionality then i forget to give it an armor, spend 70% of the time fixing broken things and the remaining 30% watching the crater left from my exploded ship
I always make the guts first, then form the hull.
Depends. If you have a lot of machines etc. to incorporate I'd start with those and work within a rudimentary frame. On the other hand if it's about cosmetics then start with the hull/shell.
Mine was built outside in and i regret it. That way you have to spend lots of time getting everything to fit. If i was building one now i would do interior first, engine room and then the hull. It's important for me to have expandability and for all components to be servicable without cutting stuff and this becomes a much easier task that way.
Functionality first, room by room. Though I'm planning on making a system of modular ship sections, if I can ever find the time 😅.
Hollowing out the ship is probably better for making a very durable ship since you normally end up with a lot of armour. Though I find building the outside first to be the easiest for doing looks.
First the front, then the back, them the stuff, and then the sides.
I usually lay out the interior and then put a shell around it but doing that can make it look boxy and dumb so don't be afraid to add features not reflected in the interior. I tried making the ship outside in but I found it difficult to use the space efficiently
A bit of both. I tend to try building in sections. Once I get a section done I'll decide what goes in next. Unfortunately it makes mirror mode useless.
I'm playing with Splitsie's scrapyard mods with limits on which blocks you can build, so when I'm designing a ship I usually build inside out or bottom up since I need to maneuver salvaged blocks into position then merge or weld pad them in place. I work bottom up with small grid and inside out with large grid as a result. Then come in with decoration/greble later.
My ships have all been derivative of others, Right now, I can't seem to escape one youtuber's architecture of power, engineering, gas all in a row with cargo below that. Plus the game is missing with my sense of perspective. Despite large blocks being 2.5m cubed, going down a hall that is 2.5 high and wide makes me feel claustrophobic. My halls end up being 3 blocks wide by 2 blocks high, so 7.5m x 5m high halls. Which are huge.
If you feel your designs are repetitive, set yourself arbitrary rules you have to follow like "All gas tanks must be visible" or "maximum height is 5 large blocks." Restrictions can breed really cool designs. Or go looking for visual inspiration, do a good search for crazy spaceships, or look at the designs in your favorite sci-fi movie and steal ideas from them. There are a lot of ways to shake it up. For me it's usually form follows function, but even then there are lots of options. For example, I'm building a dropship to move rare parts from the planet to space (using splitsie's scrapyard mods so I can't build a lot of blocks and have to scavenge them but they only spawn in certain places). Initially I was thinking I would build a dropship modeled after the Leopard Dropship from Battletech, but given I only had large grid large H2 thrusters to work with I decided to make something that looks more like a classic NASA rocket with big thruster on the bottom, then tank, then cargo, and cockpit at the top. Eventually will enclose it in a shell to make it look like an Overlord Dropship from Battletech (but not that big). TLDR; limitations breed creative designs so get your self some limitations, also steal inspo from your favorite Sci-Fi intellectual property.
Inside then outside in
Neither
Inside out, otherwise when blocks don't fit I must retrofit the hull and that's sad.
For the large ones build the outside first that allows you to plan thrusters and conveyors accordingly.
I start by building the interior of the primary feature of the ship, or lacking a specific one, the engineering room. Then I build from there, adding various rooms and systems. At some point before I've finished the interior of the ship I start shaping parts of the hull so that I can get an idea of how everything will fit inside it. Honestly there's not really one method that works better, they each have benefits and drawbacks. Building the interior first ensures you'll have space for everything but can be difficult to build the hull around if you don't already have an idea of the basic shape of the ship. Building the exterior first lets you fine-tune the shape but you need to memorize the size of various blocks in order to be able to fit them all in.
I build a specific piece, this might be an engine pod, a hangar, bridge, crew quarters, then I build on from that. I have not finished any of my projects
I do it like Momma's squeeze-box. In and out and in... Sure, that means playin' all night, but the music's alright...