Difficulty using ship designer

[SixArmedMan]

I've played the game a bit and I quite enjoy the flexibility the game offers.

The ship designer works quite well too. However, I find placing the various components to be frustrating. Trying to place a laser cannon on an attachment point is like trying to drop a needle on a small red dot from 10 feet up. It's irritating for me to have to try and find the exact point at which the part attaches to the hull. And even when I think I've found the right spot after numerous misses with mouse, the cannon will place itself somewhere completely different from where I wanted it. I like the 3d graphics but trying to get the right perspective itself is hard enough. Having your part get placed way at the back when I wanted it on the bottom of the ship is... well, just frustrating.

Also, when I have inconsequential parts to place, such as life support systems (a blue light bulb), I don't really wanna' put too much thought into it, so I'll just press the "place" button. And for some maddening reason, it'll place the part right over my laser cannon on the wing!! And when I try and delete that, for some reason, both parts are now on the same attachment point on the hull and I can't delete them! Is this a bug or am I not "getting" the ship designer???

The mechanics of the game itself are really solid and I enjoy playing the game a lot but the ship designer has gotten to me to the point where I felt sick trying to use it. If anyone has tips using it, I'd really appreciate it.


Thanks.

[Mark123jansen]

1) use the middle mouse button to move around and get a clear sight of the point you want.

2) use that same button to zoom in.

[SixArmedMan]

Using the wheel helps a little but placing the part is still hit and miss.

I'm trying to place a laser cannon on the 2nd medium hull on the Yore style ships, specifically, the lower front fin of the hull. But whenever I get the cannon where I want it, the cannon just places itself on one of the rear wings. I tried placing it on the rear wing instead in hopes they just mixed things up, but instead, the cannon overlaps my other cannon on one of the middle wings, and from there, I'm only able to delete one cannon.

... I think this is a bug.

[bonscott]

Hmmm, I've never really had too much of an issue. Sometimes it's a little hard and when it is I just zoom right in so the hard point I want is about the only thing on the screen. Hard to miss that. Then I zoom back out to see how it looks.

[phlucas]

Maybe a stupid question: When you are trying to align an item with an attachment point, do you follow the image of the item or your mouse cursor? Because what you might think of as the center of the item is not necessarily where the mouse cursor is. If you concentrate on the arrow, placing items at the desired points should be no problem.

[SixArmedMan]

Yeah, I figured out how placement works now. You place the mouse cursor itself, not the part, directly on the attachment point as you said (they should've been a little more clear with that). I have no problem with other different Yor hulls so far.

No, the problem seems to be with this particular medium size hull (The second or middle one of the three available). The cannon simply does not place itself where you want it, intent on moving itself to the rear wings. Other attachment points simply put two or three cannons on one attachment point (when you click on that cannon, three get highlighted).

It's not a serious bug, but in terms of aesthetic values, that hull is worthless.

I hope I don't encounter this with other hulls.


I'm using 1.0x