Are welder ships worth it?

I don't know about you guys, but i feel welder ships are more trouble then they are worth.

 

I use Welding drones with medium containers and I find them to be quite useful. I hate going back and forth with supplies - and even if I get into the small corner only by myself I can park the drone right next to me and get the stuff out there.

 

usually the type of helper ship I make can have the front part changed for its purpose.
dual wielders can save quite some time making walls.
by basically being an AOE extra set of hands and can carry quite alot more.
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its debatable if its worth it.
but if you've got one ready to go it can save time but if you have to assemble one it can take longer to built it then use it.
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for making bulk structures it can save a great deal of time unless you like making back and forth trips collecting steel plates,interior plating or construction components.

 

Absolutely yes. Welders and grinders.

 

my experience with grinds has been a tough one....heh
if you're going to grind stuff with the ship grinders then
- try to lock landing gears on the thing you're grinding try to lock it onto voxel or something with damper enabled thrusters to prevent movement.
-and enable override on the grinding ships gyros since these grinders will cause some tool shaking if you have that enabled.

I've attempted to use grinder pits in the past but it just tends to cause parts of the ship to bounce in random directions which may cause damage.

 

I guess it depends on what you mean by worth it. I'd say a welding ship is critical in a few situations:

- When you start to build things that take a dozen trips or more to a cargo container.
- When you start to build off blueprints where you might accidentally make a half-constructed block unreachable by hand.
- Before you have the resources/materials or specific vision to build weld-wall with moving projector.

Personally when I'm doing a survival run I will always keep a couple of barebones remote welding drones on-hand tucked away in a hangar. At the very minimum they're a floating cargo box.

 

Depends on what mods if any you use as well. If you use nano/auto build mods then no; otherwise, generally yes.

 

With 1x cargo it is almost a necessity. At 10x it is optional.

I think we only hold just over 100 plates in 1x. Enough for 4 armour blocks and change.

 

I have a dual purpose (small ship) utility vehicle I call 'Duo'. One welder, one grinder, 2 medium storage and a connector. Easy to build and (imho) required for 1x1x1 vanilla. large grid builds are impossible without it.

 

I'd been thinking of asking for tips on how to design a good welding/grinding ship. I've taken a few stabs at it but haven't come up with anything better than the KSH prefab from Easy Start Space.

 

I had designed at one time, one that used rotors, pistons, and merge blocks to bring forward the tool I wanted. Used a good amount of timer blocks. Took forever to get the pistons and rotors just right. so they would stop at the right point so when activating the merge blocks it would not rip the arms off in the sudden change.

 

I tried a ship with grinders and welders on arms attached to pistons, modeled on the ASM-2, but I found that it, like the ASM-2, had weird handling issues; it would tend to change its pitch while accelerating vertically, and end up moving in a curve, for instance. I expect that was because of the relatively large masses, attached by pistons. I thought that was unacceptable, since precise movement would be critical.

 

Small ship toolships are barely worthwhile, I generally don't bother with anything smaller than one of these dual purpose things :

 

The biggest problems I've had with welders and grinders:

• While using a projection, accidentally welding a block in front of an incomplete block, so that I can't complete that block without removing other blocks. This is especially prone to happen when it's a complex block behind an armor block.
• Grinding the wrong block, particularly if I'm salvaging a large structure and grinding the wrong block means a big chunk goes floating away or, worse, collides with something valuable.

In both cases, it's critical that I know exactly which block I'm working on.

It's easier to be precise with hand tools -- but, playing at x1 inventories, that's a lot of running back and forth to the containers. A lot. Hence the rub.

 

Use large area welders? I am sure there were a few for small ships.
Here, it's dangerous in space... take this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=358112540 <-- weld area is 300% vanilla
There was also another mod that you could stack 3 smaller welders together in the same space of the large one. Each one welded at a certain distance away from the welder so you would end up with a sort of welder beam if you used all 3.

 

Since when is a mod called vanilla?!

 

I believe he is saying they weld at 300% the rate of a vanilla welder.

 

Sorry... I meant the weld area is 300% vanilla.

 

Vanilla can't weld steel beams.

 

Anything can do anything if you have proper motivation... make a sword nearly as strong as steel out of ice. That is probably possible with the proper compression and temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Phases

 

You definitely need a welding ship, I recommend using a remote control block to make it into a drone.

 

What advantage do you see in using this approach instead of a cockpit?

 

Pro:
A smaller size if it is a small grid ship (Slimmer is better)
No longer have to worry about oxygen constraints (stop mouth breathing!)
Crashing the drone because it ran out of juice is far less likely to kill you (why were you standing under the drone!?)
Less weight to lug around (especially oxygen maker/tanks) (your too damn fat!)

Con:
Cannot fix the drone easily without flying it back to you/hanger/another drone. (stop being a clumsy driver)
Cannot just stop and get out to look at or do something (unless you are next to the drone remote operating it [although see pro #2])
It has an operating range limit. (Probably shouldn't go outside of that range ehh?)
You loose that personal touch (stop touching it there. The AI might get a restraining order against you)

 

Can you place new blocks using a remote-controlled drone as you can with a cockpit-equipped ship? I'd check this myself except that the game is in a state right now where I don't want to load my world.

 

Drone-wise I guess it depends on the kind and style of build you tend towards. I rarely use anything smaller than 3x2 welders on a large ship or a projector tug and a welder array of ludicrous size I have on occasion used a tiny ship with no cargo other than the welder and remote control+passenger seat which was designed to fit through a single large block space, to avoid many trips carrying parts to an awkward spot.

... is it in Utah? ^.^

 

Well, it seems very utilitarian, but... Holy mother of God, this ship is really ugly. I believe it gets the job done, though.

 

Industrial workhorses are not big on beauty... it's about efficiency, practicality and ease of maintenance

 

This is what I do, using at least two containers. I use the same vessel for a miner, welder, and grinder. Saves a lot of time since they can carry much more than you can. These are easier to use in space than on a planet.

 

Denial.

 

I can't imagine not using either a welder or a medium container parts hauler at 1x/3x inventory. Everything just goes so much faster. If I'm playing in space with cargo ships I usually monkey around until a Mining Carriage spawns. You can capture them with just a grinder, take the front half off, viola you've got a nice big welding/grinding ship with tons of storage.