The Mark III is up!
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=346195888

Yeah, I just checked, and the grinder system still works, I just need to move them a little. I'll knock that out tonight, and throw the new paint scheme on it while I'm working on it.

BTW, thank you for suggesting this to BlackMaze!

Haha! Well, I can't complain that you recommended one of my ships. ^^ I'll try to get it working tonight; I noticed the same problem with the 25-round version of this gun, and moving the grinders one block was all it took to fix it, so I don't think it'll be hard.

Nope, shit. You were right! Well, that's unfortunate... >.>... seeing as I sold this ship with regards to the ingenuity of the cannon's design...

Really? That's strange. I thought it worked even recently. I'll have to double check.

With the latest updates, I'm not sure the main gun on this actually works anymore; I think they tweaked the distance that grinders will work at. I suspect it can be made to work with just moving the grinders, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's not working right now.

BlackMaze youtube channel was asking for recommendations of ships to review for his channel, so I suggested this beast. I hope he does it. Your gravity cannon needs to be featured in a youtube video.

Finally did some test fires of that blast door cannon. The results were sickening. It hollowed out a crater on an asteroid, and it also hollowed out my destroyer.

I know how that goes, it's the last 5 weeks of the semester and I have two senior thesis papers to complete. I know how that goes. I imagine post-Christmas, everyone will have more free time and hopefully gaming can make a come-back to our schedules.

Very much appreciate that you're willing to check out my ship!

Glad you like this. :) I should really get around to updating it again; when they changed how armor behaves, player-made projectiles started getting much better penetration, so I could probably make smaller projectiles that would perform with similar damage to what these used to do.

I would love to do online testing, but at present RL means that I'm not really able to do much online gaming. :/

Thanks for the link to your ship! I'm going to go give it a try!

"I have yet to put this through thorough combat trials, but the preliminary testing I've done (AKA, parking it in front of ten rocket launchers and sitting on the trigger for a little while) suggests that those distributed systems will pay off."

I would gladly help you in combat testing any of your ships! That sounds like it'd be tons of fun!

Admittedly, I don't have anything in the same weight class as your Frigate here, but I'd happily bring my Nubilus-class Destroyer ( http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=336634949 ) in any such match-ups. It weighs in at 3,594,077kg, but I must admit that my ships have something of an unfair advantage in that I don't build crew quarters in my ships and that keeps down weight.

So far your frigate is my favorite of your ships. That gravity powered blast door cannon is brutal! I finally tested it out.

'k, now I see the issue with the Cascade as well. That definitely looks like a bug. Going to see if KSH gives us any response on this.

Thanks for the bug report, Psyop! I'm looking into this now; I'm currently unable to duplicate the problem on the Cascade, but I do see what you're talking about on the Caspian. Currently trying to figure out whether this is just a bug, or whether KSH decided to change thruster behavior (in which case I'll need to update the designs). Thank you for the help!

I tried flying this ship today and found that the new patch is causing this ship and the Cascade to rip themselves apart. I tested it on both multiplayer and single player. On this ship its the rear thrusters melting each other and on the Cascade its the backwards thruster nearest to the hull of the ship on the port and starboad side.

Hi Whiplash 141,

Sorry for the late response. I've thought about adding a grav drive to a number of ships, but have never gotten around to doing so. Partly I'm concerned about the cost of grav drives in survival PvP (I'm trying to replace my gravity guns with the new player-made rockets), and partly I know that gravity drives would bother some of the players out there. Ideally, I'm hoping to update this ship so the protection is better but the speed is still comparable using conventional means.

I'm really glad you like my stuff! Would love to see some of the modifications you've made. I hope you like the next project in the works; it's taking quite a while because it's a bit ... uh, large. ;)

Hey, ever considered using a gravity drive engine in your designs? It could possibly aid in accelerating and maintaining the speed of a much heavier vessel if you wished to add armour without sacrificing speed. BTW big fan of your work, have had loads fun modifing and messing around with your creations. Can't wait to see what you bring us in the future :)

Currently working through a number of updates to various ships as well as finishing a new one up, and trying to adapt everything to the latest update. (Yay-blargh!) As the Caspian is the most recently-released ship, it's a bit low on the priorities list (the Severn among other designsdesperately needs some love); however, I thought some of you might like to see the new version of the Oranje-Nassau that I've been working on: http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/580154602820727116/02A7EF51F81CC727BE59FA25FA2CE15437A2635B/

KSH Forum Post here: http://forums.keenswh.com/post/prototype-oranjenassau-cannon-mark-ii-rocket-edition-7007938?trail=15#1

Do you guys record your battle testing on video? Would be cool to see cordinated combat video on youtube.

Almost forgot the Specs:

Destroyer: ~7200 tons (1.5 times the armament of the "Caspian")
Frigate: ~4900 tons (same armament as the "Caspian")
Escort fighters: ~29 tons (typical fighter armament consisting of 4 gatlings and 2 rocket launchers)

hope i didn't forget any information you requested and i'm looking forward seeing your work on the "Caspian" progress.

In most cases our combat vessels are build with a composite of light and heavy armor while reducing the weight it still offers the recommended protection especially for critical parts of the ship and yet allow us to (almost) reach the same size as the authors ship.

Those tests are not exausting at all but most authors never use the feedback given to upgrade their ships accordingly. so most "praised" warships in here are mainly "mobile debris field generators". thats why we just test the most promising designs (you can proudly consider yourself complimented on that).

Open space combat is situated at 1.5km down to 500m while the asteroid field testing is more variable since the vessels can use the asteroids for limited cover.

Please do NOT feel offended by our advice to remodel (or upgrade) , for it is just an advice and you are of course free to do whatever you want to.

Me and my "team" of engineers are a group of 12 people (13 with me included) that randomly test "interesting ships made by the steam community and giving feedback to the owners of that mostly splendid work.

Pangolin we guide ourselves withe the original autors of their respective vessels: which means that you yourself declared a 4.666 ton ship as a Frigate. So my team and me built something of similar size and mass and weaponry (although our ships are in most cases more economically usable because we got some cracks in our group that know well about that kind of stuff) and then we test our design against the autors design in before mentioned simulations while extra cockpits are built in for "observers" (for economic evaluation) and of course all battle station cockpits are manned.

Hi Cyberguardian! Thanks for running those tests; they sound like they were quite exhaustive. That's great feedback to receive. Would you be able to give me more information on the tests? Specifically, the specs of the other ships involved (not everyone means the same thing by escort frigate; for example, Dark Lord calls some ships destroyers that I would consider to be frigates), and the manner of combat involved (all ships that I build with forward-facing rocket launchers are intended to stand-off at @ 2km and bombard the enemy; turrets are for anti-fighter work or "halp!" situations where you wind up closer than you should be). More specifics on the tests would be very helpful to me in determining how I should guide the Caspian's development.

Also, thank you Count Parsnip for your test feedback as well! All of this helps a lot. You wouldn't happen to have taken any screenshots of the tests, would you?

But i would still stand with the Caspians light armor design, the enhanced maneuverability is extremely handy and it is more than capable of taking on anything of a similar size with light armor.

I think the Caspain should stick with light armor for as it says in the description it is not really built to take larger ships head on but to pester it from a distance. It relies more on its good speed and maneuverability to stay alive. But i did a small combat test with a mate of mine, me in the Caspian him in a smaller Corvette class ship with heavy armor but less weapons. The outcome was his outer subsystems where heavily damaged the outer shell of armor and inner more protected subsystems sustained only minor damage. For the Caspian I would say at least 60%-70% of its outer armor was heavily damaged or completely gone with the port side thruster all gone par one. However because of the Caspians smart interior design the inner subsystems although where not completely damage free where still functional. The Caspians secondary command center definatly helped as well.

BTW: Did combat trials: Free Space Combat vs 1 Frigate Class, vs 2 Frigate Class, vs 1 Destroyer Class, Asteroid Environment Combat : vs 1 Frigate Class, vs 1 Frigate Class and 3 escort Fighters. (These ships were especially build with space Combat in mind). All ships were modified to have similar specs to the Caspian before testing. My engineer Team and me tested the Caspian on: Maneuverability, raw firepower, economical Functions, Damage taken over a fixed period of time (10 Minutes of Combat for every Simulation), Damage dealt over a fixed period of time (same as before). I have to say it concluded very sadly for the Caspian if you did not use Hit and run tactics but otherwise the grav cannon really did the trick. If you plan on staying with the lighter armor and no thruster shielding you should probably add mor rounds to that cannon and optimize the fireing circle.

simple and real functional design, but barely any useful traits in combat. The gravity cannon is the only advanage on long ranges, but even there you have to aim carefully to actually get a direct hit on the enemy. As soon as enemy craft gets closer the Caspian wil sadly lose the fight, because mainly light armor was constructed, not much armor on your main thrusters so the engine is killed quite easy wit 2 or 3 well aimed missiles. But i would really look forward for a "Caspian Mk II" since its really a splendid looking vessel

@Count Parsnip: I'm glad to know the Oranje-Nassau is working out for you. I'm hoping it will help give the Caspian an edge against larger vessels; the gun probably won't take them out by itself, but it might punch through their armor and hit something important. If nothing else, it can help scrape some of the premade weapons off their hulls.

@TotenkopfMedic: Thanks! I'm happy you like the way she looks, inside and out. Hopefully, any boarders will be more confused by the interior than her crew will be. ;) I have yet to put this through thorough combat trials, but the preliminary testing I've done (AKA, parking it in front of ten rocket launchers and sitting on the trigger for a little while) suggests that those distributed systems will pay off.

Really love this design. She's got great lines, and handles very well. The interior is tight, confusing, and very functional...perfect for a small warship! I also like the crew quarters. The Gravity torpedoes are awesome, and I'm currently trying to add this feature to my own ships. Though I prefer to use heavy armor in my designs, your ship can obviously take quite a beating and keep on rolling. Also, nice job distributing the reactors throughout the ship! Great work!

Cant wait till the next ship. That grav cannon is a nasty piece of work, fired all 4 KKVs at a medium sized freighter, punched holes right through the damn thing, it had about 2 layers of light armor and not to mention the inside workings of conveyor tubes etc etc. Oranje-Nassau gravitic cannon = marvelous piece of kit. Then just to top it of a few salvos of rockets and a new debris field was formed.

Thank you for all the feedback folks! I'm really glad to know you're enjoying this.

Just wanted to let people know that there may be a minor bug with the ship; under certain conditions, I've found that the grinder will not work on the blocks holding the projectiles in place. I'm trying to determine if this is a design flaw with the gravity gun, or just a quirk of how the game works (it works while stationary and at low speeds, but starts becoming unreliable at ~60 m/sec). Experimenting with changing the block (might do anyway; seems to give the release block higher grinder priority for a faster release), or moving the grinder up (again, might do anyway, since ATM there is a risk of it eventually grinding the rotor itself down). OTOH, the problem might just be how grinders work at high speeds. I'll give an update once I've decided how to proceed.

TBH, if you're using a gravity gun at over 60 m/sec and you can actually -hit- something that isn't dead ahead, you deserve a cookie. ;)

I really like these ships you make Dwarf-Lord and i really enjoy reading the descriptions they just add something to it. All in all awesome ships hope you keep making them :)

Awesome! my new favorite ship. :)

This ship is so well made. Just pure awesome.