Back during the aetherspace review there was talk of mechanics that would make it no longer the case that "small" or "big" was always the best size for an aethership, by giving them different-but-equal advantages. (Bigger ships could take more of a pounding but would be less able to avoid getting hit, for instance.) But some people are telling me that it is still the case that the only viable aetherhunting ship is the "as big as you can afford to make it" design.

I've got a fully artifacted aethership with a design I very much like, but it's a sleek twelve rooms. I've invested a lot into it, and right now it's not being used much, but eventually I want to get active again. But I'm paralyzed by uncertainty about the design. It's not just that I find the "bigger is always better" approach aesthetically unattractive; it's even more that if I start piling on rooms just to make it bigger, and it turns out after some later recoding, this size is viable, I'll have wasted tons of money and tons of time making the ship big, only to throw it away by destroying the extra rooms.

So what advice to people have, do I beef up the ship, or leave it alone, or what?

I feel your pain, Lendren (except I haven't bought mine yet, so not really). Every time I see the rooms that were added to the Aetherfoal just for size and still have the default description and title, it makes me want to punch someone. My dream aethership is at 37 rooms, but that's because I designed a yacht with living quarters and gaming rooms and kitchens and such. My first ship-only design clocks in at 19.

You don't need a giant aethership to aetherhunt if your pilot isn't a moron. I've got a ship with almost the bare minimum of rooms to fit necessary modules, and I'd be comfortable hunting in that. Probably wouldn't mess with dragons with that though, one little mess up could mean instant death. But gargantuans? No problem.

Really, I think the larger size ship is preferred by the folks who may be newer to the whole thing, with more room for error. If you've got an experienced (well-trained) crew, you could do fine with any moderately-sized ship. It just takes a bit more concentration and skill to dodge the aetherbeasts and keep things healed up.

Around 2k Hull, any half-decent crew should do fine with. Ships like the Aetherfoal are huge. If it wasn't for the module damage, it could tank 2 gargantuans.

If you're willing to pilot, 2k+ hull is pleanty. If you want others to pilot your ship (and not implode), you'll want closer to 3500 hull. I know that as a manual pilot, I don't feel comfortable in anything smaller than 3200, and I prefer the 4000-hull Aetherfoal to a 3200. The hull regen increases as the number of rooms increases, too, which can be helpful when... Er, if, your empath goes AFK/Disconnected.

Hull doesn't regen without a spider. Pretty sure Spirit only started regenning when we slapped a spider on her.

I think he means grid repair hull, which I'm fairly sure does scale to the maximum hull of the ship regardless of spider or not.

No he meant regen, hence the comment about the empath going afk right after.

Yeah. I don't think you need a spider for it, though... Or, if you do, then somebody started arti-ing the Aetherfoal when I wasn't looking!

2500 hull and teach pilots not to be dumbasses. We do pretty much everything in a ship that size. It leaves a comfort zone for if you lag and take a hit.

I've got spider, I've got all the diamonuts. But only 1600 hull.

Back when I was doing this a year ago, I was piloting, and we had no problem with gargantuans, but that was a lot of changes ago, and we weren't siphoning most of the time, I could never get enough crew back in those days to do it. I expect I'll still be piloting.

I'm partially concerned about having a ship that can beat what's out there, but also concerned about having a ship that attracts people to join the crew enough that it's not all moot. I don't want to be saying "Hey, come ride my ship, I know it's only got 1600 hull but between artifacts and my piloting it can handle the damage" only to have people be dubious and go implode in Hearth instead. So maybe I need to add some rooms just to get to where people believe the ship can do it, even more than I need to add them until it actually can.

How much hull does each room add?

I'm still worried though that once I finish, some code change will make 12 the ideal size again, and then I'll have no way back, or no way back that isn't an agonizing waste of money and credits. Anyone have any thoughts on that possibility?

I'm up for crewing with decent people whenever, even if you're flying an aether surfboard or something.

Each room is 50 hull.

Fang can handle dragons with 2950 hull, albeit not kiting them. You can handle gargantuans with 1600, I'm sure.

I wouldn't fly dragons in anything less with less than 2050 hull. Since you said your ship is fully artied up, I recommend going somewhere in the low to mid 2000s.

Wow, I have to think of eight more rooms just to get to 2000? Bah, whatever will I put in them. (I won't even consider having a very boring room for a minute... but there's only so many parts to a sparrow.)

Hammer has a lot of just... corridors.

Make a lot of feathers coming off of the wings?

Or just sealed off aetherholds behind a door somewhere. No one has to know

I would!

I'll think of something. But for now I'll just plan on doing eight, and then we'll see if I want more.

(Though I'm still worried about the day when 20 rooms becomes too big to be viable due to the next rebalancing.)