Airmen
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Meta, the advanced shipbuilding guide
By Free Onions
In this guide I will expand your understanding of ship components and functionalities, in hopes to lead improvements on your own designs, instead of imposing a personal view.

FOR WHO IS THIS GUIDE

This guide is meant for both the newer and the more advanced player, and takes heavy inspiration and parts from Zakdorn's shipbuilding guide, only improving it with the current game meta.
   
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UNDERSTANDING AIRMEN SHIPBUILDING
Compared to other games of the same genre, shipbuilding in Airmen follows its own flow, with aesthetics and functionality not always going hand in hand.

To make this as easy as possible, you should consider what your final product should be based on some general guidelines.

Starting with:

SHIP SIZE

Ship size determines what your strengths and weaknesses will be regardless of build quality.

LIGHT SHIPS (0K/10K)
Light ships are fast, nimble and difficult to hit, making them perfect for quick scouting missions, cargo runs and boarding attempts by Missile Riding (Read EXTRAS in Weapons)
Light ships running under a faction are also invisible to enemy radar stations, making them perfect for quick territory grabs.

MEDIUM SHIPS (10K/20K)
Medium ships are the best of both worlds, with resilience and firepower combined to maneuverability and speed, they can keep up with most light ships and size up to heavy ones.

Demon and Mechalodon hunting are best done in mediums to maintain weapons on target.

HEAVY SHIPS, (20K/30K)
Heavy ships have the highest resilience and firepower of all the other classes, coming at the expense of speed and maneuverability, often falling prey of faster and nimbler ships.
They are great for sieges and installation combat, and as support or area control crafts during pvp combat.
BALLOONS
SHIP FUNCTION AND LOOK

The different balloon types promote each a certain building style that are not interchangeable, but may be mixed to obtain the desired look and result.

Keep an eye on your centre of lift (yellow line) and your centre of mass (blue line) when building, as the latter can only be one meter above the other line before the ship becomes unstable.

Consider also weight and lift distribution and possible battle damage, as losing some ill placed balloons might cause your ship to entirely capsize.

For balloons you can choose between speed, armour, size:

SPEED
Airships become slower and unwieldy the higher the mass and drag. Making use of regular balloons will maximize your speed and turning acceleration considerably due their extremely light nature, at cost of these same being susceptible to damage due their size and difficulty to armour.

There are also three balloons which have built-in ballasts, however only the bigger one provides any kind of benefit due its stronger upward thrust thanks to the integrated ballasts, making it a good choice compared to floatstone as for the same amount of drag and HP.

These balloons have the highest efficiency and work great for creating open designs with classic airship style aesthetics.



ARMOR
Armoured balloons are the perfect choice for a tankier airship, coming equipped with damage reduction and plenty of comfortable attachment points for compartmentalization or reducing your overall part count.

These balloons have the highest resilience but lowest efficiency, but work great for promoting a classic battleship aesthetic.



COMPACTNESS
Float stone has several times the lift of a balloon at only a quarter of the size in most cases.
Making them the perfect choice to streamline down your ship to make more space for armour, components, or benefitting from the nil buoyancy that allows your airship to also work as a submarine.
These come with highest drag and moderate efficiency, but are the preferred choice for advanced shipbuilding.

These balloons give a lot of freedom for specific aesthetics and designs.



DRAG

A ship’s drag is calculated by the sum of each balloon’s lift ( or 80% of mass if higher) and multiplied by the drag coefficient. This is used to determine what % of speed is lost to simulate wind resistance.

From this we can deduct that having more than needed lift, even with low drag balloons, may be more detrimental than having less lift with a higher drag balloon.

But speed reduction is not linear, and will affect much strongly lighter vessels than heavier ones.

Here is a handy table to mix and match balloons by their total drag or compare other values:

Balloon Type
Health
Mass
Lift
Coefficient
Drag
Resilience
Efficiency
B. Drum
6000
40
3000
1
3000
2
75
B. Cap
7000
40
3250
0.9
2925
2.15
81.25
B. Sphere
8000
50
4000
0.75
3000
2
80
F. Brick
34000
1000
17000
1.1
18700
2
17
F. Shard
7200
150
3600
1.1
3960
2
24
F. 3x3x5
24000
750
12000
1.1
13200
2
16
F. Nose 3x3x5
18000
500
9000
1.1
9900
2
18
F. 1x3x10
18000
500
9000
1.1
9900
2
18
F. Nose 1x3x10
16000
420
8000
1.1
8800
2
19.05
Ballast B. Rod Heavy
4500
330
2300
0.95
2185
1.96
6.97
Ballast B. Rod Light
4500
180
2300
0.95
2185
1.96
12.78
Ballast B. Drum
11000
500
6000
1.5
9000
1.83
12
B. Box
12000
85
6000
1
6000
2
70.59
B. Box Wide
7000
60
3500
1
3500
2
58.33
B. Box Tall
8500
70
4250
1
4250
2
60.71
B. Box Flat
10000
80
5000
1
5000
2
62.5
B. Box Wide Slant
6000
50
3000
1
3000
2
60
B. Box Cap
10000
80
5000
1
5000
2
62.5
B. Box Rod
5100
45
2600
1
2600
1.96
57.78
B. Box Cone
4100
35
2050
1
2050
2
58.57
B. Box Cone Long
4700
45
2400
1
2400
1.96
53.33
B. Box Drum
6300
45
3150
1
3150
2
70
B. Box Drum Cap
8400
60
4200
1
4200
2
70
B. Rod
4500
30
2300
0.9
2070
1.96
76.67
B. Cone
4500
30
2100
0.85
1785
2.14
70
Armored Drum B.
8000
400
4500
1.2
5400
1.78
11.25
Armored Half Drum B.
8000
400
4500
1.2
5400
1.78
11.25
Armored Cap B.
8000
400
4500
1.2
5400
1.78
11.25
Armored Small B.
6000
200
1800
1
1800
3.33
9
Armored Small B. Cap
5000
125
1250
1
1250
4
10
Armored B.
3500
150
1500
1.2
1800
2.33
10
Armored Small B. Wide
6000
200
1800
1
1800
3.33
9
Armored Rod B.
6000
200
1800
1
1800
3.33
9
WEAPONRY and FIREPOWER
FIREPOWER

Firepower is the cost of placing a weapon on a ship, and it is directly influenced by your available mass. The more mass, the more firepower available, preferably used to full extend. Keeping in mind that as mass is lost during combat, and dips below firepower, will slowly disable any weapons as the gap between the two increases, always lowest firepower weapons first.

That is also why boarding is better achieved after the target has been damaged to some extent, in hopes that any APATs and auto turrets have been partially or totally disabled.

Remember also that firepower is not a good indicator of the strength of a weapon, but merely a way to balance weapons across ships. For in depth weapon descriptions and DPS follow the link to the weapon chart in the EXTRAS and CHART section.

Some weapons, like minelayers, behemoths, broadsiders, harpoons and so on have a firepower discount if placed according to their in-game description. Read carefully to have an edge in combat!

Other weapons have a Firepower Scaling tag, a special tag that diminishes the accuracy of such weapons the more Firepower Scaling weapons are added. This is easily countered by employing preciser weaponry, or mixing your setup with some weapons without such a tag, like automatic turrets, missiles, mines and so on.

WEAPONS and PROJECTILES

To better understand the best weapon setup for your vessel, you must understand that not one weapon is best for everything. Some weapons shine where others fail, and vice-versa due their projectile type, traverse, resilience, range, precision and so on.

We can then mainly divide weapons by type and projectile used.

WEAPON TYPES

SEMI-ADJUSTABLES ( Blast, Antique, Heavy Gattling )

These weapons have limited traverse and usually are short ranged. They work especially well when mounted up front, en masse, paired with a tilt module. But they can also be used as a broadsider weapon thanks to their firepower cost reduction of 420 when used simmetrically.

ADJUSTABLES (Lance, Quad, Bone, Flak )

Adjustable type cannons are long ranged weapons with full horizontal and good vertical traverse.
They are prized for their versatility and resilience, especially when tripod mounted.

BUNKERS ( Type I, Type II, Type III )

Bunker type cannons are long ranged weapons with full horizontal and average vertical traverse. They are prized for their concentrated firepower, quick traverse and easy placement. But they tend to be rather fragile and easy targets.

BEHEMOTHS ( Gattling, Flak, Magnetic Beam )

Behemoth type cannons are long ranged weapons with one full axis of rotation, with the other being very restricted. They are prized for their concentrated firepower, high resilience and single firepower discount placement. But they have a very slow traverse, are difficult to build with and are very easy targets.

NAVAL GUNS ( Battery, Heavy Battery, Ultra Battery, Drum, Heavy Drum )

Battery type cannons are short ranged weapons with full horizontal and nearly full vertical traverse.
They are prized for their low profile, fast and high vertical traverse, and a small AOE perfect for shredding hull and armor alike. But they generally lack precision, range and resilience.

The Drum version has a discount of 1100 and 1800 respectively when placed in a broadsider configuration, and although otherwise identical to the Batteries and make for a great wall placement gun with high resilience, they lack the signature exceptional traverse.

ROCKET PODS ( Rocket Pod, Heavy Rocket Pod, Guided Rocket Pod, Heavy Guided Rocket Pod)

Rocket pods type cannons are short ranged weapons with full horizontal and great vertical traverse.
They are prized for their high DPS large blast radius and inverse fall-off. But they generally lack precision, range, resilience and cause minimal damage up close.


AUTO TURRETS ( Single, Double, Ball Single, Ball Double )

Single, and Ball type cannons are short ranged weapons with full horizontal and great vertical traverse.
They come in all varieties, each suited best for something, and they are prized for their general high precision, fast traverse, component auto targeting and as general boarding and drone defense. But the two barreled versions lack projectile convergence, oftentime missing a narrower target, and depending on the type chosen, each will have their own strength and weaknesses.

Double Auto Turrets can be used in a broadsider configuration for a 1350 firepower discount, but are more akin to semi-adjustables and will often misfire.

FIXED WEAPONS ( Heavy Cannon, Torpedo Launcher )

Fixed Weapons are long ranged cannon with some of the highest DPS outputs, with the only requirement of aiming with the ship.

To use them efficiently with a tilt module, try and build your ship center of mass as close as possible to the center of lift or viceversa.

Torpedoes work underwater and do consistent damage at most ranges, meanwhile Heavy Cannons work with an inverse damage fall-off, best used only on ships that can keep distance.

DEPLOYERS ( Deployer, Minelayer )

Deployers are great for area control as well as brawling if applied correctly.

Mine Layers have a 3000 discount when a single instance is placed on a ship, making them a good addition to any ship able to use them. Double tapping the firegroup destroys all active mines, resetting the magazine to 5.

Meanwhile Turret Deployers have better firepower cost per turret than having just the turret themselves. They although have a 45 seconds turret re-deploy rate, are limited to three per deployer and are easily destroyed by simply ramming them over, and have a limited range of 400m from the ship before self destructing.

MISSILES ( Pigeon Missile, Shard Launcher )

Unwieldy, heavy and low damage, these weapons are usually not recommended as your primary source of damage.

Used effectively either by light kiting ships, submarines or any ship capable of engaging terrain as cover, being mindful that any overly close quarter confrontation will render them unusable.

They shine as boarding tools when built in certain configurations, outperforming dragoons in speed and numbers.

(You can find more on this topic at the bottom of the section, along with Rams, APATs and Harpoons)

PROJECTILE TYPES

Even though weapons look and behave wildly differently, they can be grossly divided in projectile types to understand their general purpose. This way you may be able to effectively diversify your arsenal to cover a wider range of scenarios, or strengthen it towards a specific tactic.

AoE + , AoE , AoE -
Refers to explosive ammo, and whether it has a large ( + ) or a small ( - ) blast radius

Reg + , Reg , Reg -
Refers to regular ammo, and whether it has strong ( + ) or no ( - ) AP qualities.

Pen + , Pen , Pen -
Refers to penetrating ammo, and whether it has deep ( + ) or minimal ( - ) penetration depth.

AoE+ and AoE are great at hitting multiple components behind armor and weaken autohammer repairs. These are generally very inaccurate though.

AoE- and Reg have great armor shredding capabilities to punch holes through ships and perform well in all occasions.

Pen and Pen+ are great at bypassing thick armoring for precise sniping purposes, however they generally deal less damage than others and are slow reloading.

Reg- and Pen- are better suited for unshielded component sniping, like propellers, weapons and balloons due their generally fast reload and/or accuracy.
PROJECTILE TYPES and WEAPON LAYOUTS
Even though weapons look and behave wildly differently, they can be grossly divided in projectile types to understand their general purpose. This way you may be able to effectively diversify your arsenal to cover a wider range of scenarios, or strengthen it towards a specific tactic.

AoE + , AoE , AoE -
Refers to explosive ammo, and whether it has a large ( + ) or a small ( - ) blast radius

Reg + , Reg , Reg -
Refers to regular ammo, and whether it has strong ( + ) or no ( - ) AP qualities.

Pen + , Pen , Pen -
Refers to penetrating ammo, and whether it has deep ( + ) or minimal ( - ) penetration depth.

AoE+ and AoE are great at hitting multiple components behind armor and weaken autohammer repairs. These are generally very inaccurate though.

AoE- and Reg have great armor shredding capabilities to punch holes through ships and generally perform well in all occasions.

Pen and Pen+ are great at bypassing thick armoring for precise sniping purposes, however they generally deal less damage than others and are slow reloading.

Reg- and Pen- are better suited against single unshielded components, like propellers, balloons or weapons due their generally fast reload and/or accuracy.

Here is a handy table with all weapons and their projectile type.

AOE+
AOE
AOE-
REG+
REG
REG-
PEN+
PEN
PEN-
Behemoth Flak
Volley Turret
Barrage/Seeker Turret
Bunker Cannon T2
Twin Turret
Light Gatling Gun
Mag Beam
Breach Turret
Shard Silo
Flak Cannon
Rocket Pod
Heavy Cannon
Quad Cannon
Needle Turret
Torpedo
Lance Cannon
Bunker Cannon T1
Guided Rocket Pod
Blast Cannon
Longneck
Bunker Cannon T3
Heavy Rocket Pod
Antique Cannon
Heavy Gatling Gun
Heavy Guided Rocket Pod
Behemoth Gatling
Bone Cannon
Battery/Drum Cannons

WEAPON LAYOUTS

If you opt for fully rotating weapons, consider where to place them to maximize available traverse and to cover any possible blind spots.

Here is a list of common weapon layouts, but weapons may as well be placed on any preferred axis or orientation for different results:

Broadfront Gunner:
This arrangement gives great forward, rear and diagonal firing capabilities if un-obstructed, limiting though lateral targeting.
This arrangement works well for heavily front armored ships and head on approaches.


Slantside Gunner:
This arrangement gives forward, rear and side firing capabilities if un-obstructed, limiting though diagonal targeting.
This arrangement is not common, but works quite well for head on approaches and target orbiting.


Broadside Gunner:
This arrangement gives lateral and diagonal firing capabilities if un-obstructed, limiting though forward and rear targeting.
This arrangement works well for ships with plenty of cannons and target orbiting.


Superfiring Front Gunner:
These guns are raised one behind the other, giving forward, diagonal and lateral firing capabilities, limiting though rear targeting.
This arrangement works well in all situations and greatly limits blind spots.
WEAPON CHART and EXTRAS
WEAPON CHART

For in depth weapon stats, descriptions and comparisons please make use of the weapon chart guide provided:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405866224

Make sure to read the footnotes that explain the meaning of the extra stats.

EXTRAS

APATs
To defend your ship against boarders it's recommended to install Anti-Personnel Auto Turrets (APAT). Their effective shooting range is 10m, but their effective targeting range is 15m, meaning they will start shooting even if they cannot hit you.

APATs are very quick, killing without problems a free-falling airmen before they reach ground, but they cannot hit targets slightly too below them, or dead atop, or aboard a dragoon.

Consider that as a ship loses mass during battle and dips below firepower, APATs will be the first weapons disabled since they have the lowest firepower cost.

Automatic weaponry targeting "weapons" might more often target an APAT if closer and a clear line of sight is present, this is due preference of attacking first any component with the lowest HP.

HARPOONS
Harpoons are useful for a myriad of applications, whether you are trying to complete rescue or capture contract, secure the ship to the ground, tow a battle damaged friend or immobilize an enemy ship.

The first fixed harpoon is always firepower cost free and each harpoon can tow 8000 masses before snapping.

RAMS
Rams come in two varieties, either blades or wedges and they greatly differ from one another.

Bladed rams will do the most damage when slicing/sliding against and object, meanwhile wedge rams will do the most damage only when hitting something directly.

All rams will do max damage when reaching the ship's max speed, that is either by propulsion or rotation, as long as the damage vectors mentioned above are respected.

Rams do 3000 damage at most each, meaning you might need to chain different rams in a single attack for full damage.

Bladed rams are a good alternative to wheels due their extremely low friction on ground.

BOARDING MISSILES

Shard Silos and Pigeon Missiles are often neglected, but can used to successfully board an enemy vessel by climbing on the missile during firing, making for a fast and expendable dragoon substitute.

Here are two apparatuses that can be built to board the missiles successfully:

Pigeon Missile:
Place the pigeon missile on a Beam Mount and add four Hull Trim Outer Corners on top in a square fashion.
Now, falling inbetween the hull trims will directly place your character on top of the missile, but works only when the ship is nearly stationary.



Shard Silo:

Place the Shard Silo horizontally, and Hull Halves in front of and as close as possible to the projectile's path (shown by the golden teeth on the Silo)

Now standing on the hull halves will have your character placed on top of the projectile, and works when the ship is moving and rotating.



HARDPOINTS
All ship weapons provide extra hit points to all connected parts equal to one third of the weapon's hit points. The maximum is 2,000 hp after addition. Thus, balloons and most engines do not benefit from this, but hull, glass, beams and helms do.

ENGINES, WELLS and the BLACKBOARD
A good building tip is to build your design around your pressure requirements and not vice-versa, keeping enough redundancy to sustain your ship during a fight even with the loss of some engines, with either the addition of wells or extra engines.

If you are unsure of your pressure requirements, try and place all your planned components randomly around the hangar to see what the final draw might look like.
But as a rule of thumb you could go for:

3000+ for light ships / 5000-6000+ for medium ships / 8000+ for a heavy ship

You should try and keep your max draw below 100%, as it only encompasses active propellers and guns. If not possible make sure to employ plenty of wells to mitigate any overdrawing.

Here is a table of most engines values (Box engine types have identical values):
Efficiency = (Pressure / Mass) , Resilience per Pressure = (P x HP) / W²

Part
HP
Mass
Pressure
Efficiency
Resilience
Small Engine
900
150
175
1.17
7
Medium Engine
1200
200
250
1.25
7.5
Large Engine
3250
550
850
1.54
9.13
Drum Engine
2000
425
550
1.29
6.09
Flask Engine
2750
485
700
1.44
8.18
Box Engines
2000
600
700
1.17
3.89
Propeller Engine
2100
225
100
0.44
4.15

As you can see from the table above large engines have the best Efficiency and Resilience, but they are unwieldy, difficult to armor, and easy targets.

Small and Box engines instead, occupy very little space compared to other engines, but are neither very Efficient or Resilient.

Flask Engines have plenty of connection points, an easy to armor shape and great Resilience.

Propeller engines are a good addition to round up any lacking pressure needs, but are unexceptional otherwise.

For best results you would want to diversify engine types, trying to fill up any available spaces without overcrowding everything in a single area, where they could all be taken out at once.

WELLS

b]Pressure Wells[/b] should be mandatory for every ship design, they allow for your engines to be overdrawn without losing pressure to your components, allow your ship to be temporarily submerged without drowning and generally being useful in any combat scenario or even be a target itself.

A large pressure well holds 400,000 pressure, meanwhile a small one only 40,000, which can be consumed or refilled at any rate.
Keeping in mind they will lose pressure quickly when damaged, and will not fill up entirely until repaired.

EXTRAS

During building, try to maintain engine exhausts as out of the way as possible from the helm line of sight, as they will obfuscate your view easily when overdrawn, or creating a dense cloud if destroyed.

Destroyed wells and engines release a cloud that temporarily blinds AI targeting in that area, try using this to your advantage if possible.


HOW TO READ THE BLACKBOARD

The blackboard in the build menu comes in hand, showing your total pressure (from the combined pressure of your engines), your max draw (from your active weapon and propeller/ballast consumption), your utility (from things like autohammers, modules, magdrives etc..), Other (?) , your well time (currently semi-broken, calculated from only your max draw, you need to add 40 seconds to every minute you see on the board) and finally your group draws (showing you what each group active on your helm will consume).




AUTOHAMMERS
Autohammers will extend your combat survivability considerably, and must be used correctly as to avoid them turning detrimental.

These repair 100 HP per part up to four parts away from themselves, repairing only one component per time every 2 seconds, which starts that part repair cooldown of 2 seconds. Making the addition of more autohammers for the same ship section not always beneficiary.

Armoring or protecting your autohammers is paramount, as they do not self repair and will not be repaired by other autohammers.

CONSUMPTION

Each auto hammer consumes 200 pressure when active but not repairing, this increasing to 800 when actively repairing. In perspective, 10 autohammers will deplete a large well within 48 seconds.

This risking to overdraw your engines if you consume your pressure wells too quickly, working against you especially if not placed in their own action group.

Consider they hold up to 40 scrap pieces, which they consume at a rate of one per two seconds, meaning they will likely run out within 80 seconds of an engagement if not refilled. But this being viable only if accompanied by crew, as they take time to reload. A good tip is to always keep a scrap frame close to your autohammers.

PLACEMENT

By mounting them onto parts with lots of connections, you can minimize the number of auto hammers necessary, but also waste repairs on non essential components. Controlling autohammer bleed is important to avoid wasting precious repairs during combat. Keeping in mind that it will always repair the piece closest to itself first and foremost.

Pieces like rigging, 3x1 hull, 3x2 cargo cages, large synth plates and other long pieces with lots of connection points work in favor of extending your autohammer coverage, but keeping in mind that all lifting parts consume up to three repair distances, meanwhile beam mounts consume no distance at all.




CREW COMPARTMENTS and BRIDGES
CREW COMPARTMENTS

Consider creating compartments where you and your crew can safely spawn to quickly equip yourselves with all the necessary tools. Keeping closest to most respawn chambers, in either form or frames or cabinets, the most essential ones, like grapplings, hammers and a defense weapon in case the ship is tilted in an awkward position due battle damage, or to repel nearby boarders.

Protecting these compartments with the addition of APATs is a good choice, as these will remain loyal to the original owner, even if the ship is claimed, and protect your respawn chambers and cabinets from sabotage.

Position and number of respawn chambers is also crucial. As you would want to reach your bridge as fast as possible in case of death by enemy artillery or blade, as even a few seconds could make the difference between someone taking control of your ship or further damaging it.
Generally for smaller ships two respawn chambers should suffice, but for larger vessels you want to aim around six or more, as they are inexpensive and they will be targeted by boarders, or even destroyed during combat. This applies also to important cabinets, as having multiple ones in different parts of the ship could make the difference.

BRIDGES and HELMS

As ships become bigger and more armored, bridges tend to remain the same, as glass is relatively fragile and cannot be armored without compromising the view.
This oftentimes becoming the downfall of many vessels as experienced combatants will try to disable any helms to quickly end a fight.

Consider placing all three available helms in different parts of your ship, each with its own autohammer coverage and essentials nearby, worrying little about possible sabotage as your ship cannot be claimed while you are piloting it.

Keeping a lever helm in the mix can be useful if your ship has suffered extensive battle damage, with either asymmetrical propulsion or lack of lift, you can fine tune inputs to straighten the ship enough to reach repairs.

Otherwise the addition of a control station can turn handy if all your helms have been taken out and your ship is equipped with manned weapons.

READING THE HELM

Reading your helm will help you understand your ship or compare it with others.

The central large inner pointer indicates your airspeed, with each marking being 1 m/s.

The smaller inner pointer indicates then turn rate, each marking indicating 4.8 degrees per second. A ship with a turn speed of one marking would make a full turn in 75 seconds. A turn speed of 12 (one full revolution) would mean a full turn in 6.25 seconds.

The outer pointer shows the direction of incoming wind, though this is only relevant for sailing ships.

The left tubular gauge indicates your current pressure consumption, with the fixed marker being your max production. If you use wells you will often see your gauge at max, as they are being refilled.

The four right indicator lights show your active group, and if present, a movable marker indicating which group you can activate with your "fire" button.

Pressing G will open your AI targeting preferences, which can also be used against you if your ship gets claimed.

PROTECTING YOUR HELM

A strong cockpit will protect you and your helm from artillery and sabotage, and meanwhile autohammers will extend the life of the helm and surrounding glass, you can try different techniques to strengthen it further.

Here are a few helm types you can try:

High HP Cockpits
Weapons have high HP and give directly connected parts increased durability, making quite easy to shield your helm with weapons in front or around it, or directly connecting your helm to one, like to bunker cannons.

Sunken Helm
Sinking your helm one space below the window line will streamline your cockpit and make sniping attempts unlikely even with breached windows. This however limits your viewing field considerably.

Open Helm
Usually a bridge is easily identifiable from the surrounding windows, therefore a windowless helm hidden amongst other components, will make the helm indistinguishable at distance.
But this makes it very susceptible to battle damage and boarding attempts, especially during a rematch.

Double Windows
Doubling down on windows is never a bad idea given you have the space, works especially well with cockpits sandwiched within the ship itself, where there are plenty of attachments for the windows themselves.

EXTRAS
Consider that small window pieces have higher HP than bigger ones when placed equally, this is due to the frame bits that reinforce them. This can be used to increase your cockpit's resilience drastically, but it will be much more difficult to autohammer and will heavily impact your part count.

PROPULSION
Rudders and propellers must be placed strategically to improve your ship's handling and speed.

Always check from your hangar's Extra Stats if you have reached your thrust cap, to avoid placing too few or too many propellers.

Rudders

Rudders work best when placed as further as possible from the center of mass in the direction of travel, as ones placed on the CoM or directly to the sides of it, will have little to no effect.

Remember to always place rudders correctly and in the direction of travel, as sideways, tilted or pitched rudders will not function at all. If you are unsure, look at the hinges on the rudder itself.

When added, rudders work with key combinations W/S and A/D, meanwhile propellers will only turn when solely A/D are pressed.

This can be optimized by repeatedly pressing W/S meanwhile holding A/D for tighter turns, as propellers do not immediately lose spin (works only on vessels which turn force by rudder is greater than just propeller turn)

A properly rudder fitted ship will always out-turn a ship with only propellers, but quickly becoming a disadvantage if too few are placed or too many are lost. Making essential to have good redundancy and not simply having a few for aesthetics, as they will change your ship turning behavior (Dragon Tail included).

The stabilizer, although not a rudder per se, is a useful addition to any ship that needs more air stability during a turn or recover quickly after one. They can also be use horizontally to build planes or stabilize a fixed weapon ship.

Between rudders there is little to no difference, except the square ones having more HP and built in stabilization, which quickly stabilizes a vessel after a turn. Of these, the Square Rudder A is the best as allows for side by side placement.

Propellers

Consider mounting propellers as close as possible to the symmetry line, as if some are lost on one side, the ship will remain governable to continue the battle or reach repairs. Consider also vertical asymmetry, as too many propellers at the bottom or top of the ship may create unwanted tilting.

You can use sails as emergency propulsion if your ship is badly damaged, since these do not require being symmetrical and will not be targeted by AI.

By mounting propellers facing up/down or sideways you can also use them to change your altitude or heading. Neither is recommended though, since ballasts and rudders respectively can achieve the same more weight and pressure efficiently.

Any propeller, regarding of placement, will always move directionally forwards at 100% of its speed, and 50% when going backwards. Rearward facing sails can be a mean to move backwards faster.

Mass and drag directly affect your maximum speed, try adding propellers to see whether you need more or you reached your cap speed, which can always be seen in extra stats at the bottom right of your in-hangar menu. Wind aligned sails are the only mean of increasing speed above your cap, even if not shown on the blackboard.

Here is a list of most propellers and their values:
(Eff = Thrust / Mass) (Cons = Draw / Thrust) (Res = HP / Thrust)

Part
HP
Mass
Draw
Thrust
Efficiency
Consumption
Resilience
Single Propeller
2400
150
160
550
3.6
0.3
4.3
Single S. Propeller
2400
125
160
550
4.4
0.3
4.3
Heavy Propeller
2400
175
190
650
3.71
0.3
3.7
Heavy S. Propeller
2400
150
190
650
4.3
0.3
3.7
Twin Propeller
3200
250
320
1000
4
0.32
3.2
Short Propeller
1800
125
100
400
3.2
0.25
4.5
Engine Propeller
2100
225
160-100
550
2.4
0.12
3.8
Leaf Propeller
2400
150
240
750
5
0.32
3.2
Blade Propeller
2400
230
320
1000
4.35
0.32
2.4
Dragon Tail
4000
150
160
1000
6.7
0.16
4
Small Sail
1600
100
0
1300
13
0
1.2
Large Sail
2000
150
0
2000
13.3
0
1

From the table above you can see that the Dragon Tail has the best Propulsion per Mass, the Engine Propeller has the least Consumption per Thrust, and the Short Propeller has the most HP per Thrust. Sails on the other hand, even though with some higher values, must be fully aligned to the wind to reach those stats.

Take notice, although the Single S. Prop is more efficient than the Heavy Prop, the latter has a better space efficiency as less needs be placed to reach your thrust cap.

Consider that touching any water body will slow down your vessel, as much as 30% when partly to totally submerged.

Your ship flies slightly faster when following another vessel less than 500 m away, this effect maximizes within 200 m where you will reach the pursuit speed as per the black board.

BALLASTS

For normal maneuverability you should have at least one ballast per 1,000 mass. Considering that each lifts around three times its own weight.
Thus if you have more than 2.2 ballasts per 1,000 mass, your ship can fly even without any lift from balloons or float stone.

This is a good building tip to increase your airships speed and maneuverability, as less lift means less drag, and can always be balanced out by adding extra ballasts.

Your ballasts should be spread out equally throughout your ship for normal ascent and descent, but you may also place more of them at the front to create a small pitch during your maneuvers. If you want to use a tilt module effectively instead, you should place them mostly at the front and back of the ship. However it is recommended whenever possible to use the rod ballasts due to their higher HP.

MAGNETIC DRIVES
Magdrives need 30 seconds to charge, during which time they consume 2,000 pressure per second for a total of 60,000 pressure, or one and a half small wells.

While charging, your ship can only move at around one quarter of its normal speed. Afterwards propelling the ship at speeds ranging from around 17 for a heavy to 20 for a light.

For light vessel the relative speed benefit is negligible, but I recommend always having them on board as a mean of transport, given all your propellers has been taken out or the asymmetry due combat is too great.

Each magdrive supports a mass of up to 12,500. However, exceeding this mass merely reduces your speed, as a 30k vessel with three magdrives reaches speeds of 17.6, whereas with two it still reaches 16.5. Using just one your magdrive speed will only be 14 though.

Be careful when magdriving as any excessive tilt or yaw may disable them, but ascending or descending is totally fine, as well as strafing. Hence if you were to place your magdrives sideways, you could use your propellers to correct your path left or right by strafe. Consider also that any damage to your magdrives during charging or propulsion, may disable them into a cooldown.

If you are unsure that you placed your magdrives correctly, locate the golden teeth on the rims, those will indicate the direction of travel.
HULL and ARMOR
Armoring your vessel is a must to increase combat life and hide sensitive components from enemy sight. But when properly done it will also reduce overall mass, leaving space for more components or even extra armoring.

To this goal, plenty of parts can be used to armor, like hull, balloons, armor skinning, riggings, hull roots, cargo cages, etc...

But Synth plates remain the better choice, thanks to their higher damage reduction, blast resistance, low weight and being downright cool, especially when painted.

How To Armor

Most weapons can easily bypass armor by Penetration or Explosion AOE, hitting components underneath, rendering most armoring useless.

Consider whenever possible leaving a buffer zone between the part you are trying to protect and your armor, as most projectiles can easily bypass most armoring by either penetration or explosion AOE, hitting directly the component underneath. If this is not practical, try otherwise using aesthetics to your advantage and building in layers.

As an example, you can build side platforms to house propellers and or balloons, blocking some incoming shots to sensitive areas.




Saving Mass With Synth Armor

By using armor properly you can both strengthen sensitive areas and save mass in others.

Consider that hull, glass and armor are all blast resistant, reducing the overall explosive or piercing AOE damage of all the parts with the tag caught in the blast radius.

Hence by using full wooden planks and armor you get the best defense, but becoming quickly not practical to protect most of a vessel due the resulting high mass.

Consider instead using wood paneling as a structure to support your armor and swapping planks for lighter pieces like hull triangle long, hull half, hull ridge or switching slanted hulls for slanted windows.

LIKE SO:

Regular Hull section with Synth weighs 360 masses.


An improved Hull section with Synth weighs 200 masses.


A weight reduced Hull section with Synth weighs only 161 masses.


Try mixing different hull section styles for best results, keeping in mind where you want a bit more resilience and where you can save mass.

CARGO
Considering the contract requirements, it is recommended a cargo capacity of 192 parcels for bigger ships. This allowing to fill up on the most profitable or biggest deliveries of 64 parcels with ease.

For combat oriented vessels 64 cargo capacity should suffice for faction deliveries, smuggling or collecting cargo from downed vessels.

Easy access to your cargo racks is important to transfer loot or harvest parcels quickly and efficiently, placing them closer to the ground or on horizontal surfaces, like below or inside the ship, will make loading easier. If this is not possible, the use of pneumatic tubing and hatches is also very convenient, or, using to an extent cargo racks as flooring, allowing to both easy access and mass saving.



Consider that when loading cargo, your ships mass will increase, like with normal cargo pads or cages your mass increases by 30 per parcel, meanwhile using float stone cargo racks it only increases it by 10.

If your parcel racks get blown off during a delivery, rebuilding your ship at a friendly factory will restock them, making not necessary to hide your parcel racks inside your ship.
DRAGOONS
Dragoons are a must for every vessel, either for boarding enemy ships, quick scouting or even saving a sinking vessel.

Bear in mind that all of them are relatively fragile, even the armored dragoons have less hit points than the long hull plate they are probably standing on.

Thus, I recommend to house them in a hangar aboard your ship with hatches leading outside, these though do not need to be opened as the dragoons do not interact with them.

Since dragoons float, they can effectively be used to lift a sunken ship given they get caught in the ship frame, but each one can only lift up to 300 non-buoyant masses.

Emergency brakes can be activated by leaving the dragoon seat, this will make an otherwise unavoidable crash unlikely, and if inevitable, you will not explode along with the dragoon.

The regular dragoon is the fastest, but all dragons can be useful.
The armored ones can be repaired mid-flight, the harpoon can be used to turn and push a propeller dead ship, smoke can be used to indicate targets or obfuscate someone's view, transport are great for airdropping airmen to locations, conduct self repair or shooting, cargo ones are perfect for loading or carrying extra cargo.

Consider that autohammers currently will not repair dragoons but only the launcher, so keep some hammers and scrap nearby for you or crew members for a quick repair after every use.

Having extra dragoon landing pads can come in handy to add any dragoons you may find across the Archipelago (currently broken) or have a friendly captain board your ship with ease.

For more info on dragoons, check out our DRAGOON guide: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3329846194
EXTRAS
Here is a list of fun facts and extras that didn't make it to the original guide:

  • You get 2 seconds immunity to damage once spawned, use it wisely.

  • Roll correctors are stronger the closer to the center of mass they are placed. Placing some on a floating seavessel will make it go faster.

  • Horizontally placed stabilizers can be used to make wings for aircrafts, these although do not work as true wings, but more as a parachute. Aircrafts are generally much faster than airships due their lack of drag from balloons, but they are very fragile and are difficult to build and handle. For good maneuverability and climb rate, you can go use a stabilizer for every 150 mass.

  • Placing legs on an otherwise cumbersome airship, can be used to turn quicker by using the ground to your advantage.

  • With enough ballasts and a tilt module, you can backflip your ship.

  • Helms have a 30m range to all weapons, be careful where you place your your cockpit and weapons!

  • Propellers placed closer to the symmetry line have a faster turn acceleration.

  • Revolvers are more precise once c0cked and lose no accuracy when moving, they deal however less damage to players and blocks than other guns. Carabines can kill with one headshot, and deal the same damage as Lever Actions to other body parts and blocks, but they reload slower and lose all accuracy when moving your character. Lever Action's quick reloads make them a prime choice to damage ship components and or kill players, and they do not lose too much accuracy when walking around.

  • Hands, hammers, binoculars and so on all deal the same damage, but butting with a weapon is faster than all of these.

  • You can use grappling hooks underwater as a mean to deal a finishing blow to an Airman since guns won't work.

  • You can place a tracking Shard from the Shard Turret on a dragoon.

  • You can use Scorpion dragoons as a mean to carry and airdrop Walker Dragoons.

  • You can place boarding charges on pigeon missiles and shard silos.

  • You can repair pigeon missiles and shard silos while riding them.

  • Pigeon Missiles will immediately explode if hit dead center of the head.

  • If you are building a train or connecting ships with connectors, consider taking control of all other helms once, this will signal the ships that they are under your ownership and will release full power and controls to you.

  • Walkers can easily fly with the addition of magdrives and enough tilt to counteract gravity.

  • Ball turrets take less space than regular auto turrets, use them inbetween autoturrets to save space.

  • Floatstone shards are weirdly shaped, if they seem to not fit, rotate them until they do.

  • You can use triangular synth pieces to cover odd 1x1 angles and spaces on your ship.

  • Trim pieces connect with eachother when within the same cubic space, even if they are not directly touching, use these or slabs to build complex connection points or above slanted synth armor.

  • You can use the synthetisers in the desert to kill worms.

  • The quickest way to increase your bounty is to invest in Bunker Turrets at outposts and blow them up with boarding charges.

  • If unsure between the walker leg types, consider this:
    Mecha legs are the fastest of legs and have lateral stabilisation to round up battle damage.
    Spider legs have the best climbing ability, turn the fastest and are easier to place.
    Tracks have high resilience and better grip than wheels.
    Wheels are the fastest of all land propulsion.

  • Powered wheels cause more drag than un-powered ones, find the balance between these for good acceleration and high top speeds.

  • Gyroscopic Turret Stabilizers are a super useful addition to any crewing ship, but they do not need to be next to the turret itself, they can be safely placed within the ship itself.

If you know more fun facts, please write them in the comments!
Credits
Special thanks to the members of the Airmen Factions Server and Zakdorn that made all of this possible.

Our official discord link: https://discord.gg/sn55DzqXpj
2 Comments
xKilroyx 16 Feb @ 1:50am 
Great guide! Enjoyed reading it.
Free Onions 20 Oct, 2024 @ 4:51pm 
who needs a walk-able ship when you can just have half hazard quasi connected half planks everywhere? Also glass.... glass is a great building material