Shiprekt begginer tips

Note: I don't know which subforum this should be, so I'll put it here until the admins could sort it out.

I've just played this yesterday, and got hooked for the next 6 hours. I am no tester, so like the majority I learned by trial. After some observations with the learning player base here are some tips so as not to appear as a noob.

Basics:
1.) Your objective in the game is to destroy or "rekt" the opposing team's core - that thing were player's spawn and take stuff from.
2.) You basically have 2 options, improve your core and turn it into a mothership or build a gunboat or torpedo.
- Motherships are cores that have been padded and made mobile, almost every team will end up doing this. Most mothership configurations will have cannons bristling and a weak rear with engines.
- gunboats/ships are those constructs not connected to the core/mothership that'll eventually be launched to do sorties at enemies
- torpedoes are like gunboats, the distinguishing feature is that they're usually small or long and are loaded with bombs as well as having a unidirectional rudder system. They will be launched unmanned or sometimes manned aimlessly or towards the enemy direction.
3.) You can build things not connected to the main ship, as long as you're standing on something (not swimming) you can place things in the water. This is useful if you want something not connected to your ship (like a bomb part).


Ship parts
For the modules or ship parts, you'll quickly familiarize yourself with it so here are some tips instead. (I might add pictures if this thread picks off or as requested)
1.) Cannons - cannons can be manned, or they can auto fire at enemy players. Keep in mind with their placing in that their line of sight is not impeded by a wall block, since sometimes they're spawned with wall blocks. A key note when manned, try not to fire forward if you have a fast ship, because your ship will catch up with your cannon ball and just hit itself.
New - with the latest update, cannons/turrets now fire on enemy turrets.
2.) Bombs - the bane of a noob team is when they just connect this to the mothership. This usually becomes a target for enemy cannoneers or enemy boarders can come and detonate this. It is essential however for building torpedoes or ramships (more unto this later). Should you ever need to put this on the ship, i.e. its tile coming along with something important like a rudder, then ensure that you block this off with walls.
-also another note, if ever you'll place this in the mothership or a gunboat, avoid putting it close to engines, chairs, guns. Due to lag reasons or maybe a bug: when players activate something next to a bomb, be it a rudder or a gun or a chair or even take from a spawn, they will most likely activate the bomb as well.
New - Bombs can be deactivated! Be it enemy or friendly bombs, simply interact with it again. Bomb fuses are approximately 3 seconds, hot potato.
3.) Detachable Chain - this is distinguished by the grey looking circle block. Players use this to build torpedoes or ships which will later detach from the main ship. An important point where many noobs go on to ruin the hard work of others is that they'll accidentally connect the mothership with the chained torpedo or ship being built. So when you see this part and its jutting out a construct from the mothership, please be wary of where you place your tiles, you might end up connecting a masterwork gunboat to the ship and ruin it, or worse, just connect a bomb laden torpedo to the mothership O_O
New - chains can be detached remotely, discussed below.
4.) Chair - the chair allows one to control all the rudders connected to the entire ship. Avoid putting this close to the core spawn, with the same principle as the bomb. Players might activate it and move the entire ship, catastrophic if team mates are building gunboats on the water (not connected). Here's useful tip, try to orient all chairs to one direction as much as possible, this'll give the entire team a clue as to where the front/prow of the ship is. The direction of the ship is determined by where the chair is facing. So if you sit on a chair and press "W" (forward) all the rudders behind you will activate. I always fancy calling the chair that's most well protected as the "captain's chair".
New - You can detach Chains by pressing the space bar. Useful for firing torpedoes or dropping towed payload be it a bomb or a gunboat.
5.) Engines/Rudders - key propulsion for your ship. The more you have the faster you'll get, the bigger your ship the more you need for speed, simple right? It gets more complex though, to avoid making the ship list to one direction you have to make sure the rudder positions are balanced. Each player will have their own ideas and create interesting things but here are some few tips to get you started.
- Designated the rear of the ship and where most of the rudders will go (this could be 1-2 rudders or half a dozen if its the mothership you're building on)
- Add "side thrusters" - best placed on the prow area (not near the center of the ship). Facing outward, this'll allow you to "push" your ship to one direction, the more you place the faster your rotation will be. This is easier to apply if you're making a long ship (rectangle)
- Or if you have a small ship you can use the concept of double engine control. Place 2 rudders (or groups of rudders) facing the rear, and make the 2 far away from each other, but equidistant in relation to the center of the ship. If you press forward, both engines will fire; if you press left, the right side engine will fire and rotate your ship to the left; if you press right, the left side engine will fire and rotate your ship right.
-there are many other ship designs that you can experiment with, just keep in mind the weight and seize of your ship.
6.) Wall Blocks - These blocks can take a beating, and can be used to pad your ship or mothership and protect important parts. For example, bombs or even the rudders. You can pad your rudders so that it ain't immediately destroyed should the enemy get behind you. They are also key components for torpedoes or rams, since they can cause damage if you collide them.
New - take note that the Engine Bodies are made of wall blocks. Also while Rafts (floor), turrets, bombs are destroyed by rudders, Wall blocks do not, which means you can stack 2 rudders in the same
axis and the one touching the rudder of the other will not be destroyed. You can use this principle to armor your engines.
7.) Raft - the floor. Just one additional tip, they themselves can be used to pad albeit lightly. They can counter collisions of other raft parts; and if they're enough of them - can even destroy solid wall blocks. When you have the time, and can afford the extra tiny weight addition, padding your turrets with raft flooring will ensure that they won't die quickly from a collision. They also have some use in balancing torpedoes (discussed later)


Additional Tips
-The map is round O_O Which means if you exit the map on one side you'll appear on the other side. Keep this in mind when firing torpedoes, it might go around the world and end up hitting your ship instead.
-A typical game begins with teams sending torpedoes or gun boats, then escalates and ends to ramming the motherships with each other. Keep that in mind.
-Etiquette, try not to move the mothership if you see team mates are building unattached ships/torps near it. Unless of course if the enemy is coming.
-Torpedo building - always ensure that the rudder placement is balanced, make its body long instead of wide, because widening it risks unbalancing the rudder system and you might end up making it a rotating hazard that'll just return to your ship XD

Ship Ideas
Ram Ship - stack bombs and wooden blocks on the front. Have a strong propulsion system, and a few side thrusters to control. Aim at enemy, then go ramming speed!
Broadside Battleship - one of my favorites and have done it twice with good results. Stack all the cannons and wooden padding on one side. Apply rear propulsion and a good side thruster system on the opposite side, this'll allow you to circle the enemy, preferably to their vulnerable rear engines.
Torpedo Cruiser - turn the your mothership into a launch platform! Widen the front, and build multiple torpedo bays. Use the mini map and align the ship towards the enemy, then fire torpedoes. If you see the enemy not moving, keep building torpedoes, even unattached ones.
Core Cruiser - sometimes big isn't always best. To your core, add what's essential, light wall padding, enough rudders, and guns. Any extra walls or bombs just drop them off to sea. You'll get a fast and maneuverable ship that can outrun heavier Motherships and can run circles around them. With enough speed, enemy turrets will have a hard time hitting your faster ship.

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Edit: April 10, 2014
Additional Tip
~ If you are sitting on the Captain's chair, you can actually detach chain blocks from the main ship by pressing Space bar. You can use this tactic to develop detachable bombs or torpedoes. The "Wet Beaver" ship I made is an example of its use.
~Also with multiple chairs in one big ship, if you are currently controlling the ship, and another player sits on another chair on the other side of the ship, he'll control the nearby rudders and you'll lose control of it. So if you're a non captain, it is advised to you go seek a turret to stay on instead if the ship is running rather than on another chair.
Etiquette
~Avoid building if the ship is moving, especially if its a fast ship. You'll end up placing the block on empty water and the ship will most likely crash on it. Catastrophic if its a bomb or engine.
~If you're a new crew, and you wish to help with building the core ship, always orient yourself first on where the ship is facing (if it has a direction at all), one simple technique is to note where most of the rudders are facing. Keep in mind the balance of the engine system, because placing too many on one side will make the ship list even if it is being directed to move forward.
~If you are to place a gun or a wall block, ensure that it doesn't block the line of other guns. I often see ships bristling with guns but half of the guns made useless due to the fact that the crew decided to build in front of it with more walls.
~A sign of a good team is the acceptance of one captain who is in charge of controlling the ship. Should you be a new arrival, ascertain if the crew has a captain (usually the first player on said team) or they're just busy building gun boats. If its the latter you can most likely offer to be the captain, but most of the time they'd just want the ship stationary if that is the case.

Example Rudder System
Here's an example of a rudder system, there are many who have figured out how to make a proper steering, so here's one example that'll hopefully help.

This type of system consolidates the engines on the rear of the ship. The main parts are in that yellow box, and any extra engines you get you just need to balance it out or put it on the main axis of the ship. I've used this on almost all my ships. Disclaimer I did not design this, I saw some players do this before and I just adapted it for the mothership.

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Edit: April 14, 2014
Added to: 1. Cannons 2. Bombs 3. Detachable Chains, 4. Chairs, 6. Wall Blocks, 7. Raft Flooring
New Ship Idea

Building and Launching Torpedoes
Meet Ingrit - a battleship with a formidable broadside, a singe use ram and dual torpedoes.

First off, remember that you can detach chains while on the captain's chair by pressing "Spacebar". Now If you combine this while having the engines of those torpedoes activated (usually by moving towards their direction), well...
See Ingrit throw harpoons...

In this case, the torpedoes attached to Ingrit has the same orientation as its forward direction rudders. So by Pressing W and then Spacebar simultaneously you'll detach the chains and the torpedoes become autonomous.
-As you can see the weight of those 2 bombs and chair; as well as the push of the left rudder on the "Explosive Torpedo" (right one) has influenced its turning arc. But thankfully the length negates a bit of this.
-You can make fat torpedoes (wider ones) but generally they'd be slow. They can still go straight as long as you balance it out from the principles above. It appears the varying items have different influences as to how much it pulls the torpedo direction to one side, raft parts having the least effect to the point of being negligible. The most powerful influence would be the placing of the rudders. For example the left torpedo, it has the 2 rudders all in one axis, and you can see it run almost straight.
-Note how placing torpedoes on your ship gives additional rudders overall, until those torpedoes are separated you might risk unbalancing the ship. This unbalance becomes more prominent the more lateral the torpedoes are placed. The above example countered this because it had the 2 torpedoes on both sides. You can also solve this by:
1.) Having a single torpedo on the prow
2.) Balancing each side with a torpedo (as the example above)
3.) Putting on balancing rudders on the contralateral side of the ship, which is not ideal since once the torps are fired then the ship will become unbalanced
4.) Or, build what I call an Ass torpedo Butt bomb. Basically a torpedo/s being towed by your ship. They're attached to the rear and are oriented backwards. When you want to fire it, simply turn around, activate reverse, and press space. The torps are released and their is no effect on your ship other than decreased reverse speed.
-Another note, it is advised that if you have a fast ship. That you stop to a halt at the moment just after you fire your torpedoes. Otherwise you'd overtake your torpedoes and suddenly find yourself eating what you've spit.

Efficacy of Torpedoes
As people get more and more familiar with the game, they'd stop doing random torpedo spam since they're more luck based, time consuming, risky if the balance fails and they'd boomerang back to the owner.
As for destructive power, small torpedoes, even one with just a single explosive can ruin an enemy ship's construction. By taking off a section and unbalancing the ship or, hit important parts like the rudder system or turrets. It is also plausible that giant torpedoes, ballistic or explosive can drive through a huge section risking to cut the ship apart. (a giant Ram Torpedo, anyone?)
For torpedo usage, attached, launched torpedoes are the way to go rather than random opening game torp spam. They are not game winners in my opinion (unless you do try out the Ram Scud Missile) but their usage is more tactical (since more likely than not, you'll only be able to build smaller ones). They can be used in the opening of an engagement by targeting them at rudders/group of rudders or turret batteries (I get to see more and more players battery their turrets AKA Broadside).
A well placed hit on a ship "neck" can cut off the ram of the enemy and turn it into a giant obstacle instead. The possibilities are many. Just keep in mind, that most of the time they're not supposed to finish the enemy. Torps will either be a nuisance or a critical crippler to an enemy ship. I'll leave you to figure that out as you explore the tetris blocks given to you.

-New crew member mistakenly attach your torpedo to your ship? Your only hope would be to blast the connecting pieces with a turret.

 

Great tutorial, i remember when i played yesterday with you - my In-Game name is Bunnie. My happiest moment of life was when i kamikazed your ship (WOO-HOO, I KILLED THAT PRO PERSON)

 

Great write-up! It's a shame that most of the time strategy becomes sort of irrelevant given the pace of some matches though. The Sac and Hella (tm) method of spamming ship parts, bombs and all, to create one giant unnavigable blob of shit is often as effective at outlasting your opponents as an actual strategy.

 

Dildo ships master race
@Areo

 

Very nice! I played the game for about 4 hours and loved it but this guide is still teaching me a lot! I really think they should make Shiprekt a separate game from KAG. It's so awesome!

 

I love building a small ramming ship with a ton of bombs on the front, steer towards a vunerable part of enemy ship, initiate ramming speed, jump out and swim onto enemy ship

 

shiprekt is pretty nice, but unplayable in a professional way
You will ALWAYS get teammates who fuck everything up (building bombs everwhere, ramming your gunboats, randomly activating engines and bombs) You dont rly know if those are griefers or rookies.

1. My tactic so far is fortyfing the mothership with wallblocks
2. building mines (unatached bombs) around my mothership
3. some engines with bombs as torpedos
4. build a gunboat with atleast two engines ↑→ and a cannon or bombs and wreck enemy ships


The system of a destroyed team joining another should MAYBE changed, besides that
-you can destroy your own spawner (enemy camped at my spawner and I shot him with my gunboat)
-camera changes everytime you use a control-seat (just why)
-while engines are on, movement gets pretty buggy
-you can trap your own team with wall blocks
-the small minimap is useless the big one is a little bit to big for my screen screen resolution (1024x768)

 

Today I got onto an enemy ship unoticed in the middle of battle and I jumped on the enemy seat and drove them away from our battle. They didn't see me so they were like "WOAAAAH" "SLOW DOWN" "WATCH OUT FOR THAT BOMB". Then they noticed me and I punched people into proppellors and it was great.


Tip: use drivers seat on enemy ship it's great.

 

Thanks for the positive reactions so far :)

@ccnc, indeed I have once destroyed an enemy, then he spawned as my team mate, with rage he proceeded to mount one of the cannons and destroy the core. Though these are rare occurrences.

Anyway here are some pics of a few ships :)

This is the Matilda, what i'd consider a ram ship class (colloquially termed as penis ships) which I had the "luckxury" of adding additional guns


Here's a lighter ram ship I named Wet Beaver, I kept getting bombs so I decided to create a payload. I managed to drop that payload in front of an enemy ship, too late for them to turn XD the destruction was hilarious


The Torus, a broadside battleship. Heavy guns on the left, and an armored "battering ram" for a prow.


Here's its successor the Torus II finishing off the remains of its prey

I was blessed with very cooperative crew members that quickly agreed when I said "All guns on the left, engines to the rear and wall blocks to the front". Here's the Torus II with repairs after a nasty battle.

The broadside battleship doesn't have to be well armored, it needs enough guns and enough propulsion to circle its enemy. Usually enemy guns can't hone in on valuable turrets or engines if your ship is mobile enough. It especially gets nasty if the broadside manages to circle all the way to the rear.

The Torus II in the heat of battle. We rammed the bomb prow unto that orange ship. We were about to finish it off but the Cyan ship entered the fray.

 

Edited the original post adding a picture :3

@Downburst
I'd like to use that picture as well as another type of rudder system if you'd allow me? I'd edit it with tips and arrows and include it in my main post.

 

Pro tip to win game:

1. Build a ship that only goes straight.
2. Add one rudder to make it go left/right.
3. Add turrets to it.
4. Kill everything.
5.
6. Profit.

 

I noticed, building ligthweight gunboats is pretty cool, but manned bomb ships are usually more effective.

Also a pretty good tactic against slim motherships. Build a small and fast boat with controls for 2 or 3 directions. then shuffle the tiles as long until you get a bomb but dont use it. Drive to enemie, jump out with active engines so the boat rams the enemie ship and leaves a small hole, then attach bomb as near as possible to spawner and lit the thing.

P.S.
I rly like this mod but seriously fuck the teammates

wow, people can be real assholes in this mod/game
-placing bombs near spawner(core)
-ramming with the motherships everything (e.g. own gunboats, loosely shipparts, bombs)
-stealing your gunboats (this happened to me in the last two servers 5 times within 10minutes) and you cant do shit about it.
thats beyond rookie failures, that is advanced griefing

 

Today I have come up with the best worst strategy to ever hit any videogame over the history of time, in shiprekt. Simply take your starter ship, having spawned safely in a new round, put enough engines to guide it roughly, and HEAD FOR THE NEAREST MAP CORNER. All you'll need to do after that is build your ship out, surrounding it with mines and traps along the way, in a way which means IT MUST NEVER BE MOVED.

STEP 1: surround with jetsam, mines, turrets as far away from the core as possible
STEP 2: MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU PUT CANNONS ON THE SIDE OF THE BLACK VOID, they will warn you of approachers
STEP 3:
STEP 4: do nothing, you already won

you might be saying things like "YARR YE FILTHY BILGE RAT THAT THERE BE CAMPIN AND THAT'S NOT WHAT PIRATES DO" and to that I must say that is indeed the case, BUT WOULD PIRATES DOWNLOAD VIDEOGAMES?

I think not. I have won 2 rounds this day doing this, and a third was only stopped by someone moving the ship to spite another crewmember, this tactic may be prone to mutiny, griefing, or traitors "ship re-appropriation" if your crew believes you are acting out of cowardice, but if you assure them that the best offense is a good defense (that's how that works right?) THEY MAY WONT AT ALL UNDERSTAND

 

Hehe, actually saw one player put one rudder on his core, activate it and just started laying down a wall of debris, guns and mines. I was thinking of trying that out but make it into a square. Then when it's secure, make a small but fast core ship to patrol and run.