This reminds me of that time on Klendathu when the Mobile Infantry nuked a bug hole.Shhh... it's a secret.
Or rather, the [GBI] Tartarus complex. Deep underground, it is unapproachable (and virtually unassailable) by air. In fact, it's doubtful it'd even be detected unless someone knew what to look for. Sentry turrets watch the tunnel entrance, ready to kill any curious spelunkers that get too close.
General Empyrion Thread
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
Alrighty then - the horrible hangar of horribleness has been removed, the ship has been redesigned slightly (to improve airtightness, but it still didn't seem to work, even though all hull and exterior window blocks show green in debug), and it flies a hell of a lot better now. So now it's off to see the next scenario - but gaming headsets show up tomorrow, so I'll probably be looking to join GBI over on Renntech sometime tomorrow evening (pacific).
GasBandit
Staff member
If you want a nearer-to-true survival experience on the server, before linking up with us, I recommend starting on Omicron instead of Akua. There doesn't seem to be anybody ever starting there. But be warned, there are alien drones on that planet (and no oxygen), so it could be tough.
GasBandit
Staff member
GBI has exciting news!
First, and less importantly, a habitation wing has been added to the Tartarus complex. Two executive suites now provide leisure and comfort for high ranking GBI personnel, and there are also Junior Accommodations available for the working stiffs. Additionally, its supplies have been brought up to acceptable levels.
But the big news is: GBI proudly (but quietly) opens its latest branch office: the Kiki Orbital Branch!
A very similar design to the Yaral Orbital Branch, the KOB is your one stop shop for all your ore processing and fabrication needs, conveniently in EXTREMELY DISTANT orbit around Kiki, the abundant (and reset-nightly) resource world deep in PVP space! The long distance location is an unfortunate necessity, to keep the exact location of the KOB station away from greedy, dangerous eyes. It IS PvP space, after all.
Unfortunately, the black thumb curse I seem to have been struck with persists here, and the KOB can't seem to keep plants alive to save, well, MY life. I've had to repurpose the two side-hangars on the Legion into growing facilities to mass produce the corn I need for plastic to make the pulse laser and plasma ammunition the turrets need. Also, water is a challenge, though there are two ice worlds within convenient jumping distance where I've secreted caches of water generators, and I plan to check them daily.
Furthermore, Kiki is so much further from the sun that solar collectors are almost completely useless. Despite being turned directly to the sun, the solar array barely collects 50 kw. Fortunately, Kiki is a ready and lush supplier of promethium, so the generators will turn for a good 50 hours even under full production load.
The KOB is not fully supplied yet, unfortunately, and not all of its turrets are online - only the flak cannons and 15mm miniguns. So, for the next 20 hours or so, I'm keeping the fully armed and battle-ready Legion stationed next to her for defense, and I've switched both the Legion and the KOB to my personal private ownership temporarily. This is an unfortunate necessity until the station defenses are fully operational. Any GBI facility flagged as "GBI" property will drop its offline protection shields whenever any GBI staff are online, no matter where they are in the solar system. So be it Tinwhistler fanning the breeze on Skillon, Aislynn sunbathing on Yaral, or anyone else doing literally anything, the station 200au away would be bereft of its strongest defense. Unfortunately, this also means that nobody but me can approach the KOB or the Legion until I get back on tomorrow, as the shields will instantly vaporize anyone who comes close - even GBI affiliates and their allies. So, for now, keep back!
But the big news is: GBI proudly (but quietly) opens its latest branch office: the Kiki Orbital Branch!
A very similar design to the Yaral Orbital Branch, the KOB is your one stop shop for all your ore processing and fabrication needs, conveniently in EXTREMELY DISTANT orbit around Kiki, the abundant (and reset-nightly) resource world deep in PVP space! The long distance location is an unfortunate necessity, to keep the exact location of the KOB station away from greedy, dangerous eyes. It IS PvP space, after all.
Unfortunately, the black thumb curse I seem to have been struck with persists here, and the KOB can't seem to keep plants alive to save, well, MY life. I've had to repurpose the two side-hangars on the Legion into growing facilities to mass produce the corn I need for plastic to make the pulse laser and plasma ammunition the turrets need. Also, water is a challenge, though there are two ice worlds within convenient jumping distance where I've secreted caches of water generators, and I plan to check them daily.
Furthermore, Kiki is so much further from the sun that solar collectors are almost completely useless. Despite being turned directly to the sun, the solar array barely collects 50 kw. Fortunately, Kiki is a ready and lush supplier of promethium, so the generators will turn for a good 50 hours even under full production load.
The KOB is not fully supplied yet, unfortunately, and not all of its turrets are online - only the flak cannons and 15mm miniguns. So, for the next 20 hours or so, I'm keeping the fully armed and battle-ready Legion stationed next to her for defense, and I've switched both the Legion and the KOB to my personal private ownership temporarily. This is an unfortunate necessity until the station defenses are fully operational. Any GBI facility flagged as "GBI" property will drop its offline protection shields whenever any GBI staff are online, no matter where they are in the solar system. So be it Tinwhistler fanning the breeze on Skillon, Aislynn sunbathing on Yaral, or anyone else doing literally anything, the station 200au away would be bereft of its strongest defense. Unfortunately, this also means that nobody but me can approach the KOB or the Legion until I get back on tomorrow, as the shields will instantly vaporize anyone who comes close - even GBI affiliates and their allies. So, for now, keep back!
Grr... posting here because "watch thread" doesn't seem to be working.
GasBandit
Staff member
The Kiki Orbital Branch is now sufficiently defended, and is now once again under the GBI flag. Any personnel wishing to use Kiki for resources are encouraged to utilize the KOB for resource production. As the food growing area is laregly useless, I am converting it into additional furnaces.
I spent yesterday in Creative space, designing and building ships - mostly just to get used to doing it. The initial idea was to build a hover tank capable of delivering smaller, more agile hover tanks to the front lines. The initial build went well except for the lack of hangar door blocks for HVs and the fact that I picked 3x3 shutter doors instead, which are just too small to realistically get a tank in and out of. So, it became an APC. Each APC has passenger capacity for 30 heavily armed Marines and is armed to the teeth in order to get them to the front line.
Here's one now, hovering lazily above the sea on Akua. I keep hearing these things don't do well on water, but I suppose it's a bit like BttF2 - it's fine as long as you have POWAH. We'll get to some of that power later on in the belly shot.
Side view - there's a couple belly mounted rocket turrets to dissuade would-be kamikazes from suiciding under the belly doors.
Here's the belly shot. Shutter doors top and bottom for easy recovery and deployment of marines. Full line of hover boosters and some massive feet with plenty of hover engines provide a truly impressive amount of lift.
So, now I had a way to get a lot of marines to the front lines very quickly and efficiently, but only if the battle was on the same planet as my shipyard. And who wants to take the time to set up a full shipyard, with appropriate support facilities, on a hostile planet, with potentially limited support? Not me. And not my marines, neither. A carrier was in order. Not knowing any better, I started with an SV that can carry one APC per trip, to be used to transport the APCs from a CV in orbit to the surface. This is the result.
This SV can carry one APC per trip. Or it could. If you could dock HVs to SVs. That may change at some point in the future, or their may be some other, smaller, class of vehicle (ground vehicles, perhaps?), so it will stay in the blueprint folder for now.
It also isn't symmetrical, but I discovered the HV issue before I finished fixing it.
Well - that was an interesting way to spend four hours, but it doesn't get me any closer to getting my APCs onto a hostile planet without building them in situ. Aislynn assured me that I could dock an HV to a CV, though - so after testing what happens when you drop an HV from a huge height in atmo (so far, in creative space, it bounces around a bit and then floats off just fine), I set to work again. This time, I would need a bigger space to work. I spent at least two hours building a planetary shipyard, in the middle of a lake, with full refinery support. It was 49 x 49 square. We'll see a shot of it later. But first, the CV. It's labelled a carrier, but it's really closer to being a Marine Expeditionary Ship - those big Ro/Ros that the Navy uses.
Here she is now. With exterior space for up to four Mk III APCs and interior rack space (and passenger seats) for 120 marines, plus APC crew and ship's crew, with wardrooms at the back for officers (though they have an exterior door so it's a little bit like taking the extra leg room for the exit row), a full med bay, kitchens - the works.
Here's a shot of her down on the planetary shipyard I built on Akua. She really is a beast.
Here she is on the approach to Ningues. They have no idea what's coming.
Here's one now, hovering lazily above the sea on Akua. I keep hearing these things don't do well on water, but I suppose it's a bit like BttF2 - it's fine as long as you have POWAH. We'll get to some of that power later on in the belly shot.
Side view - there's a couple belly mounted rocket turrets to dissuade would-be kamikazes from suiciding under the belly doors.
Here's the belly shot. Shutter doors top and bottom for easy recovery and deployment of marines. Full line of hover boosters and some massive feet with plenty of hover engines provide a truly impressive amount of lift.
So, now I had a way to get a lot of marines to the front lines very quickly and efficiently, but only if the battle was on the same planet as my shipyard. And who wants to take the time to set up a full shipyard, with appropriate support facilities, on a hostile planet, with potentially limited support? Not me. And not my marines, neither. A carrier was in order. Not knowing any better, I started with an SV that can carry one APC per trip, to be used to transport the APCs from a CV in orbit to the surface. This is the result.
This SV can carry one APC per trip. Or it could. If you could dock HVs to SVs. That may change at some point in the future, or their may be some other, smaller, class of vehicle (ground vehicles, perhaps?), so it will stay in the blueprint folder for now.
It also isn't symmetrical, but I discovered the HV issue before I finished fixing it.
Well - that was an interesting way to spend four hours, but it doesn't get me any closer to getting my APCs onto a hostile planet without building them in situ. Aislynn assured me that I could dock an HV to a CV, though - so after testing what happens when you drop an HV from a huge height in atmo (so far, in creative space, it bounces around a bit and then floats off just fine), I set to work again. This time, I would need a bigger space to work. I spent at least two hours building a planetary shipyard, in the middle of a lake, with full refinery support. It was 49 x 49 square. We'll see a shot of it later. But first, the CV. It's labelled a carrier, but it's really closer to being a Marine Expeditionary Ship - those big Ro/Ros that the Navy uses.
Here she is now. With exterior space for up to four Mk III APCs and interior rack space (and passenger seats) for 120 marines, plus APC crew and ship's crew, with wardrooms at the back for officers (though they have an exterior door so it's a little bit like taking the extra leg room for the exit row), a full med bay, kitchens - the works.
Here's a shot of her down on the planetary shipyard I built on Akua. She really is a beast.
Here she is on the approach to Ningues. They have no idea what's coming.
GasBandit
Staff member
Those are great designs! Yeah, unfortunately, you can only dock HVs/SVs to CVs and Bases, and CVs can't dock to anything. I think they did that on purpose as a game balance issue, and I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be changed, TBH.
Also, be advised that, as far as CVs go, only 15mm and 30mm turrets will operate in atmosphere. Bases get a few more turrets (like the all important homing missile turrets) in atmo, but for the most part, atmo combat is the domain of HVs, as theirs are the only artillery and flak turrets that operate in atmosphere.
Also, be advised that, as far as CVs go, only 15mm and 30mm turrets will operate in atmosphere. Bases get a few more turrets (like the all important homing missile turrets) in atmo, but for the most part, atmo combat is the domain of HVs, as theirs are the only artillery and flak turrets that operate in atmosphere.
Thanks! I'm ok with the docking decisions from a game balance - and optimization - standpoint, really. While it would be fun to create a bunch of HVs that dock to SVs that dock to small CVs that dock to huge CVs like a bunch of expensive and deadly Russian dolls, the sheer amount of computer power necessary to keep track of that many ship cores all in one space must be astounding. Now the only real issue I have is that I can't get the RoRo airtight and I have no idea why not. All of her hull blocks show green, except the airtight armored automatic doors, which themselves are set into double thick airtight walls. I'm sure it's something stupid somewhere, and I'll find it eventually, but right now it's driving me up the wall. Also, noted on the turrets. Most of the turrets on the carrier are for show/getting to atmo from wherever the fleet jumps into the system.
GasBandit
Staff member
Make sure you're not using any of the glass/transparent door blocks. Even the "armored" doors are only air-tight if you use the opaque door blocks. The glass/see-thru ones do not have the oxy-trapping force fields.
Heh. It was related to that issue... the exterior doors were airtight, but so were the interior doors. Once I swapped all of the interior doors for the glass/transparent types, the whole ship became oxygenated, instead of just the compartments with ventilators.
Anyway, fresh off of my success with a RoRo and APC, I headed back into creative Akuan space, spawned a shipyard out in orbit, and set to work on an SV fighter and CV carrier to go with it. Designed for escort duty, this medium(?) sized CV has space for six tiny fighters and limited life support facilities. All fighters will have to be recovered before jumping out of system, however, as they are too small to be warp capable on their own.
Escort out in front, where she belongs.
Side by side, for comparison. The escort is the same length as the RoRo, but a third the width.
One of the fighters in question. Good for harassing enemy bases, taking out drones, and shooting the turrets off of CVs - just don't get shot, you won't survive.
Now all I need are some medium and large SVs to act as Destroyers and Battlecruisers, and a massive CV to act as a gunship - with two broadsides full of turrets. Oh, and actual hover tanks to support the ground ops.
Escort out in front, where she belongs.
Side by side, for comparison. The escort is the same length as the RoRo, but a third the width.
One of the fighters in question. Good for harassing enemy bases, taking out drones, and shooting the turrets off of CVs - just don't get shot, you won't survive.
Now all I need are some medium and large SVs to act as Destroyers and Battlecruisers, and a massive CV to act as a gunship - with two broadsides full of turrets. Oh, and actual hover tanks to support the ground ops.
GasBandit
Staff member
And all the resources to build them in survival mode
But in all seriousness, I know the whole "broadsides" thing is romantic and everything, but the truth of the matter is most CV combat is just fighter combat writ large. This is because CVs can still mount fixed direct fire weapons (most people use 6 pulse lasers and 4 homing rocket launchers), and those are pretty much limited to pointing forward, because that's where your targeting reticle will be even in a CV.
So, for any battleship type CV you want to be a front line bruiser, adjust your design philosophy accordingly - you want ALL your turrets to be able to come to bear on a target directly ahead at the same time. That they can traverse is just an added bonus.
Yeah, these are all going to be expensive as hell, and they take hours and hours and hours to build, even by blueprint. But, yeah, I figured broadsides wouldn't really be the way to go when I noticed you can't even put a cannon facing aft as chase armament. I mean, you can, but they aren't counted as existing on the toolbar or in the ammo calculation. I figure my battleship will either be a modified version of the Destroyer I just built (basically a face full of weapons with some passenger seats and a warp tank to jump out if it all goes in the toilet), or a double hammerhead design with all of the fixed weapons on the front hammerhead.
GasBandit
Staff member
Fun fact, you can decrease the build time in blueprints by adding components instead of ingots, or even better, completed blocks/devices.
For example, if the blueprint calls for a lot of iron and sathium, adding combat steel blocks instead of iron ingots and sathium ingots will DRAMATICALLY reduce the time required for the blueprint to be ready.
This is why, before the advent of repair-to-template in alpha 8, most people would decide to completely tear down a moderately damaged ship and respawn it from blueprint - it ends up being less hassle, time, and headache to just feed the ship's reclaimed blocks and devices back into the blueprint factory, and then make up the shortfall with ingots, and only have to wait an hour or so.
GasBandit
Staff member
Horrors and Disaster!
The Titan Branch was discovered by aliens (Evasong and Shadows, specifically)! As luck would have it, I was in the area... but only in the SkyHarpy. Not exactly a formidable warship. Nevertheless, I tried to rush to the defense of the GBI Titan Branch... buuuuuut...
Well, I'll let my pictures of the aftermath speak for themselves.
Incidentally, Tartarus survived just fine, and still has quite a bit of resources in it, I just didn't want to reveal its presence or sit around on titan waiting for a CV to finish in the blueprint factory.
When Noodle got on afterwards and heard about all the fun she'd missed, she decided to go alien full time... which means giving up all your non-alien buildings and ships and possessions and starting over. So she hosted a "giveaway" to try to have a contest to see who would win all her stockpiled resources, but having just heard the blow-by-blow of the destuction of the Titan Branch in global chat, all the players online at the time clamored for her to give them to me, to help me "bounce back" from my crushing loss (I didn't tell them that I had many times over what I'd lost already stockpiled in other bases such as KOB, Tartarus, YOB, and of course, Oscutune (and whatever you guys have squirreled away on Ningues and Skillon).
So, anyway, I became the proud owner of a cargo sled with about 2 double-sized containers each of every kind of resource ingot, plus 9000 fusion cells and at least 50,000 raw pentaxid.
I dragged it back to the Yaral Orbital branch, and set every constructor that wasn't already otherwise engaged to start churning out Combat Steel armor blocks.
GBI will be goin' to war, soon.
The Titan Branch was discovered by aliens (Evasong and Shadows, specifically)! As luck would have it, I was in the area... but only in the SkyHarpy. Not exactly a formidable warship. Nevertheless, I tried to rush to the defense of the GBI Titan Branch... buuuuuut...
Well, I'll let my pictures of the aftermath speak for themselves.
The Alien CV leaving the smoldering ruin of the Titan Branch and heading out to find more carnage -
Hey, the damage doesn't look so bad from this side....
Oh. But this side... uh...
Yikes.
RIP, [GBI] SkyHarpy. You fought bravely and died quickly.
Our new alliance is already paying dividends, though, as once the alien menace departed, our allies from the Galactic Republic came to rescue me and give me a ride, along with what I managed to salvage from Titan.
Leaving the wreckage behind...
Hey, the damage doesn't look so bad from this side....
Oh. But this side... uh...
Yikes.
RIP, [GBI] SkyHarpy. You fought bravely and died quickly.
Our new alliance is already paying dividends, though, as once the alien menace departed, our allies from the Galactic Republic came to rescue me and give me a ride, along with what I managed to salvage from Titan.
Leaving the wreckage behind...
Incidentally, Tartarus survived just fine, and still has quite a bit of resources in it, I just didn't want to reveal its presence or sit around on titan waiting for a CV to finish in the blueprint factory.
When Noodle got on afterwards and heard about all the fun she'd missed, she decided to go alien full time... which means giving up all your non-alien buildings and ships and possessions and starting over. So she hosted a "giveaway" to try to have a contest to see who would win all her stockpiled resources, but having just heard the blow-by-blow of the destuction of the Titan Branch in global chat, all the players online at the time clamored for her to give them to me, to help me "bounce back" from my crushing loss (I didn't tell them that I had many times over what I'd lost already stockpiled in other bases such as KOB, Tartarus, YOB, and of course, Oscutune (and whatever you guys have squirreled away on Ningues and Skillon).
So, anyway, I became the proud owner of a cargo sled with about 2 double-sized containers each of every kind of resource ingot, plus 9000 fusion cells and at least 50,000 raw pentaxid.
I dragged it back to the Yaral Orbital branch, and set every constructor that wasn't already otherwise engaged to start churning out Combat Steel armor blocks.
GBI will be goin' to war, soon.
Well, have I got the fleet for you. It needs to be painted, of course, but that can be done later.
The double hammerhead design of this Battleship allows all of the forward facing turrets to come to bear at once, including those two massive artillery cannons on the back hammerhead. What you don't see here (and what your opponents will never know) is that it doesn't matter which hammerhead they blow off first - the twin cockpits are in the middle, completely surrounded by battle steel. Good luck killing her.
And here's the fleet in battle formation off of Akua, with the previously unseen Destroyer class ships along for the ride. As they're SVs, they can belimpited limpetted frelling docked to the hulls of the CVs. The escorts can carry four each, in addition to their regular detachment of either fighters or tanks (anti-personnel or artillery).
Of course, some of those ships will really need to be scaled down for use on RennTech. Just one of those heavy lift RoRos can move the entire server population - or double if they ride in the APCs (which are all airtight in their own right).
The double hammerhead design of this Battleship allows all of the forward facing turrets to come to bear at once, including those two massive artillery cannons on the back hammerhead. What you don't see here (and what your opponents will never know) is that it doesn't matter which hammerhead they blow off first - the twin cockpits are in the middle, completely surrounded by battle steel. Good luck killing her.
And here's the fleet in battle formation off of Akua, with the previously unseen Destroyer class ships along for the ride. As they're SVs, they can be
GasBandit
Staff member
They look pretty impressive, but if I might make one design change request -
If they're to be used online in PvP, we're really gonna need to protect the thrusters more. Thrusters have much lower comparative HP than armor blocks, and enemy turrets often target them first. Most people who are serious about PvP, I am finding, completely wall-in their thrusters with combat armor, so that none are actually visible at all.
It kind of is lame from a RP/Lore standpoint... but every single "alien" vessel I've seen so far, piloted by Evasong, Shadows, Noodle or Iceman... all had no visible thrusters. They were all kept on the inside or blocked up.
I think I might have to do some refitting on the Legion.
If they're to be used online in PvP, we're really gonna need to protect the thrusters more. Thrusters have much lower comparative HP than armor blocks, and enemy turrets often target them first. Most people who are serious about PvP, I am finding, completely wall-in their thrusters with combat armor, so that none are actually visible at all.
It kind of is lame from a RP/Lore standpoint... but every single "alien" vessel I've seen so far, piloted by Evasong, Shadows, Noodle or Iceman... all had no visible thrusters. They were all kept on the inside or blocked up.
I think I might have to do some refitting on the Legion.
And here I was thinking that would make ships not go anywhere at all. They can easily be plated in, without destroying the designs too badly. That's part of why I built them by hand. Most of them are on the workshop right now and just locked down to private, but you're on my friends list, so once I get them refitted some I'll switch them over to friends only and you can pour through them in creative space and make further recommendations.
GasBandit
Staff member
IMO it *should*, but the devs apparently have other priorities.
GasBandit
Staff member
Do you need to account for thruster damage or anything?
GasBandit
Staff member
Nope. You can completely encase the shit with no room to breathe whatsoever and it'll work 100% fine, and not damage anything.
Eh. It's Alpha, yet.
GasBandit
Staff member
No, 99% of the time, turret fire is completely automatically targeted, and they would not be fooled.
Yeah, I don't think they have "decoy" blocks like Space Engineers, where you could, conceivably, fool turrets with armored decoys.
GasBandit
Staff member
Gared has joined the ranks of the GBI crew!
Aaand tonight, while we were minding our own business, a bored admin (Evasong, the same one who led the attack on the Titan Branch) had the "great" idea to stage an impromptu mini-event... alien infestation. The site? Where I was, of course! The Yaral Orbital Branch.
It went on like this for another hour at least. Rooms and ships we thought we'd cleared out would spawn more aliens. Much ammo was spent, much healing was done, many parasites were contracted and cured, and so on and so forth.
I griped at Evasong and convinced him that next time he wants to stage an "infestation event" he should spawn in a derelict space station or capital ship to stage it in, and users would come running. Several other factions expressed interest in helping eradicate the infestation, but I wasn't about to open the doors of our most rich facility to their greedy eyes and hands!
Aaand tonight, while we were minding our own business, a bored admin (Evasong, the same one who led the attack on the Titan Branch) had the "great" idea to stage an impromptu mini-event... alien infestation. The site? Where I was, of course! The Yaral Orbital Branch.
It went on like this for another hour at least. Rooms and ships we thought we'd cleared out would spawn more aliens. Much ammo was spent, much healing was done, many parasites were contracted and cured, and so on and so forth.
I griped at Evasong and convinced him that next time he wants to stage an "infestation event" he should spawn in a derelict space station or capital ship to stage it in, and users would come running. Several other factions expressed interest in helping eradicate the infestation, but I wasn't about to open the doors of our most rich facility to their greedy eyes and hands!
Yes indeedy, and this game is much more enjoyable in multiplayer - I'm glad I didn't let the drama of that CF'd invasion event push me away too far. Having read through Tin's very helpful planetary guide up there, I think I'm gonna head on out to Sienna with my oh-so-lovely concrete bunker and start work on a defensible base design and a nice, massive shipyard. As it turns out, while they are indeed expensive, my biggest CV is size class 3. I have at least 6 more size classes to work with! Seriously, though, I need to spawn a few of them and see how they actually compare in size to something like the Tantive IV or the Basilisk. Then it's time for some cost cutting measures, like not building the entire thing out of combat steel blocks, using upgraded RCS instead of massive RCS banks, fewer big thrusters instead of massive amounts of little thrusters - the list goes on, I'm sure. Though I will be spending at least part of the next four days (at least, I'm sure) assembling my new computer.
I take it that enclosing your turrets does NOT enjoy the same convenience.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
Ha ha ha, no.
Also, I would imagine that, at least to some degree, thrust to weight ratios, center of gravity, center of mass, and all that fun stuff still factors in; so unless you like flying the equivalent of a trash barge, putting all of your thrusters in a core in the middle of your ship isn't really going to cut it.