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Ship Design

Design your own space ships

The ship design system is one of the strategic pillars that differentiates 5Dim from other space strategy games. Instead of using fixed models, you decide what each ship in your fleet looks like: its armament, its armor, its speed and its cargo capacity. Mastering design lets you create fleets optimized for each situation —attack, defense, exploration or transport— and gain an advantage over rivals who settle for generic configurations.

Ship types and their role

Each hull type has a different role in combat. Before designing, it is worth understanding what each one is for, because the chassis defines the limits of what you can mount on it.

Fighter Fighter Fast and cheap. Ideal in swarms and exploration.
Corvette Corvette Balanced. Good cost-to-power ratio.
Cruiser Cruiser Medium ship with high sustained damage.
Battleship Battleship Maximum armor and firepower.
Titan Titan Elite ship. The most powerful unit in the game.

The Titan is unlocked with advanced research and requires a very developed economy to manufacture in quantity.

The design editor step by step

In the design lab you start from a hull and equip it with components until you get the ship you want. Each component consumes space and raises the manufacturing cost, so designing well is an exercise in balance.

5Dim ship design editor
Design editor: choose hull, armament, armor and propulsion
  1. Choose the hull: fighter, corvette, cruiser, battleship or titan depending on the role you seek.
  2. Mount the armament: determines how much damage the ship inflicts in each combat round.
  3. Add armor: increases hit points and resistance against enemy fire.
  4. Configure propulsion: affects travel speed and fuel consumption.
  5. Reserve cargo capacity if the ship is going to transport resources or other ships.
  6. Save the design and build it at the shipyard like any other ship.

The key attributes of a ship

Every design is a trade-off between four attributes. You cannot maximize them all at once: the more armament and armor you mount, the heavier, slower and more expensive the ship will be.

AttackThe damage it inflicts per shot at a specific ship size and distance.
ArmorHit points and resistance. How long it lasts before being destroyed.
Hyper speed and Impulse speedHow fast it travels between systems and how fast it moves in combat.
Cargo capacityHow many resources or other ships it can transport.

Fuel consumption grows with the ship's weight. A huge number of ships can be so expensive to move that it becomes impractical for distant missions. You can build ships without a Hyper engine that travel inside hangars and deploy in combat.

Design strategies by objective

There is no "best design": there is the right design for each mission. These are the most useful templates:

  • Attack ship: maximum armament and armor, no Hyper engine and only travels in the hangar of other ships.
  • Fast exploration ship: high propulsion, minimal armament. For discovering systems with little expense.
  • Transport and support ship: maximum cargo or hangar capacity, moderate armor and no impulse engines.
  • Support ship: fires from behind the lines; it is a large and heavy ship with both Hyper and impulse engines.

Components boost the designs of a specific ship type. Having high-level components greatly improves a ship's design and can lead you to specialize in that specific size.

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