Excel Ship Designer v2025.06.13

Modules should not draw power. Will be fixed in the next update, hopefully soon.
Made a mess of things getting breakaway hulls to work better. Imagine a teenager taking a carburetor apart without instructions, and now the parts that the cat hasn't run off with are all over the living room floor... and he took it apart in the dining room.
So "soon."
Are you referring to just hulls drawing power? Because some have equipment that definitely needs power and most modules do not include a power plant.
 
On the topic of Hull Options:
1. Would it be better to split functionality so that on a standard hull, the main column does it all, but changes to ONLY main hull in a breakaway hull
-OR-
2. The current system where the main column is ALWAYS the total hull and secondary is only secondary.

The first could cause some confusion, and would require both boxes to be checked for the combined hull to be completely covered.
The second could cause edge cases where the main and secondary hulls have two different levels of stealth.

My thought process was that if you need an option like aerofins on the combined ship, you have to pay for the full tonnage to get a benefit.
I'm having a hard time thinking of situations where it would make sense for the main body to have something that the connected ship doesn't.
 
I was thinking about that... Right now, if the main hull has it, both do.
In the ship from Singularity, the two hulls are different. The smaller one has all the good stuff and the larger one is civilian. Sadly, I think they need to be separated or you won’t be able to replicate that ship or others like it.
 
On the topic of Hull Options:
1. Would it be better to split functionality so that on a standard hull, the main column does it all, but changes to ONLY main hull in a breakaway hull
-OR-
2. The current system where the main column is ALWAYS the total hull and secondary is only secondary.

The first could cause some confusion, and would require both boxes to be checked for the combined hull to be completely covered.
The second could cause edge cases where the main and secondary hulls have two different levels of stealth.

My thought process was that if you need an option like aerofins on the combined ship, you have to pay for the full tonnage to get a benefit.
I'm having a hard time thinking of situations where it would make sense for the main body to have something that the connected ship doesn't.
With the ship in Singularity, the smaller ship has armor and stealth that the main doesn’t, so it has all the special goodies. Sadly, you may need separate option check boxes for main and secondary hull for when they are conjoined.
 
In the ship from Singularity, the two hulls are different. The smaller one has all the good stuff and the larger one is civilian. Sadly, I think they need to be separated or you won’t be able to replicate that ship or others like it.
It replicates Singularity now. It is when the goodies are reversed and the secondary is lacking that problems arise.
Although, if you take a 600 ton ship and make the secondary 500 tons, we are back to the secondary having features reported correctly.

I can think of many reasons for the smaller ship to have extra hull options.
I can't think of a good reason that the smaller piece would lack a feature when joined.

The only thing that could come close would be adjustable hull to hide the missing ship when separated, but the adjustable hull mimics ships of the same volume, not additional volume.

What would be some cases where the main ship needs features but the smaller craft doesn't?
 
It replicates Singularity now. It is when the goodies are reversed and the secondary is lacking that problems arise.
Although, if you take a 600 ton ship and make the secondary 500 tons, we are back to the secondary having features reported correctly.

I can think of many reasons for the smaller ship to have extra hull options.
I can't think of a good reason that the smaller piece would lack a feature when joined.

The only thing that could come close would be adjustable hull to hide the missing ship when separated, but the adjustable hull mimics ships of the same volume, not additional volume.

What would be some cases where the main ship needs features but the smaller craft doesn't?
Weapons come to mind. The main ship might be armed and the secondary not. They stick out, so that matters.

As for the hull directly, a stealth smaller ship. A Q-Ship with an armed and armored parasite ship. Things like that.

It is conceivable that someone might have options on either the primary hull or the secondary. It doesn’t make reconciling it easy, but each needs to be able to support the Full Monty.
 
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Your example above is currently covered. The parasite is secondary and reports separately if the main isn't similarly covered.
The main ship is the currently issue. When would a main ship have something but not the smaller one? Current reporting is both or secondary only.
I'm looking at what it takes to change it on the sheet, just trying to get a conversation on when it would be used/useful, and whether it should be moved into the breakaway section to avoid confusion.
I am NOT (at this time) going to go into "but what about ships that break down into five pieces like Voltron?" (Which generally means I'll be working on that next week... )
 
Your example above is currently covered. The parasite is secondary and reports separately if the main isn't similarly covered.
The main ship is the currently issue. When would a main ship have something but not the smaller one? Current reporting is both or secondary only.
I'm looking at what it takes to change it on the sheet, just trying to get a conversation on when it would be used/useful, and whether it should be moved into the breakaway section to avoid confusion.
I am NOT (at this time) going to go into "but what about ships that break down into five pieces like Voltron?" (Which generally means I'll be working on that next week... )
I didn’t realize that the secondary was only reporting things that were different from the primary. Maybe something on the summary to make that clear?
 
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