Ship class, what exactly does it mean. How effective is it, and did I just break it?

[DankHoneyOil]

So I've been experimenting a lot with ship class, and I've come to what you see in the image below in a fully functioning ship. But what does this even mean? And how effective is it, what is a good number? What I have below seems well beyond intended at first glance but I'm not sure.

Ignore the ugly design I was just slapping stuff together for testing sake.

Some parts of this ship are 9k+ ship class. The each thruster with frame around it is a module which itself has shipclass 6k and could be improved.

 

[Womble]

The only "mandatory" number in Warp Class is "1", which guarantees basic structural integrity. Below 1, bits are likely to fall off your ship, and, in the Safe Zone, your ship will limit itself to a speed where things won't fall off, unless you turn that limitation off in settings, which is generally an unwise decision.

Warp Class isn't the only constraint though. A WC 1.11 ship I drive needed more beam bracing in its frame when it had fully-loaded ore cans, since some of the frame elements were overloaded. However, maximising WC means adding in a lot of beams to bolt things to, generally, so it's likely that high WC structures will have good, strong frames.

The received wisdom I have so far is that 5 is "tough" and 20 is "tanky". 3500 is definitely extreme.

Whether WC greater than 1 has any function is a question I'm interested in having a good answer to.

 

[DankHoneyOil]

Thanks for the reply it does help put things in perspective.

A WC 1.11 ship I drive needed more beam bracing in its frame when it had fully-loaded ore cans, since some of the frame elements were overloaded.

Yeah funny thing. I sketchily increased the storage of my Trifin to 90(from I believe 54 base), just threw crates on top. As I filled a load, it would get a durability error, wanting bolt added or removed here or there. I could go a bit more, then it would happen again. I finally realized it was all being caused by a hidden tiny panel that couldn't handle the added stress in the area. Threw that into space and all is good.

Whether WC greater than 1 has any function is a question I'm interested in having a good answer to.

That would definitely be nice to know.

 

[Womble]

Thanks for the reply it does help put things in perspective.

You're quite welcome. The structural integrity model of the game is of great fascination to me. It's definitely got the makings of a USP for the building function, from my perspective.

...all being caused by a hidden tiny panel that couldn't handle the added stress in the area. Threw that into space and all is good...

Yeah. Plates, man? Fewer the better... But then armour's going to want for multilayers... And making that lot hang together might be a whole 'nother interesting problem to get to grips with

 

[Alendo]

My take on it is that if you have a WC just above 1, not a lot should happen until it's below 1, and you run into trouble. Say you have a plate that is secured with a few bolts, if 1 bolt is shot off, it loses a bit of WC. If it needs 2 bolts to be above WC1, it could be useful to have 3 bolts for redundancy if 1 fails.

 

[Nemmy]

So did you drive it straight in to an asteroid outside of SZ yet and record it? you wont lol