Create a series of roughly balanced, easy on frame-rate Mini Fleets.
Once a decent number have been completed, begin work on creating encounters, videos... whatever... using these.
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General Announcements:
2/19: Due to various technical issues that make me want to punch things, I'm not going to be releasing carriers. Balance them however you like.
2/19 (technically, and barely): Dreads and Cruisers fixed. Sorry about that.
2/18: Yes, I'm still trying to do this

2/02: Working on general carrier balancing stuff. Once finished, expect a frigate and cruiser class carrier. As well, working on a main-line dreadnought (sorry about the lack of one so far)
2/02: Balanced Fleet and Judges download fixed, there SHOULD no longer be any sprite issues. As well, 2 more ships were added to the balance fleet download, a carrier (which might be upgraded a bit when I finish carrier balancing work) and a mainline cruiser.
1/31: Working on carriers for balancefleet now
1/31: I REALLY fucked up with the templates thing. I'm sorry. For anyone who was inconvenienced or turned off from trying this by that fiasco... I'm sorry. That's really all there is to say
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Recent Edits:
edit: Judges are now completely innacurate. Balance fleet updated
edit: Judges download has been updated with 5 more judges. Please read the section on judges for information on these new judges.
edit: New and improved layout work underway.
edit: New sample balance fleet up. Now with less issues.
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Sample Fleet Download
New (actually correctly balanced [See General Announcements]) fleet to give you balance/ size ideas... complete! Please note that these ships were made following (As far as I can tell) all the rules that "real" fleets are supposed to follow. Default colored cores, some default color parts of the ship, etc.)
Download
Also, just a fyi, I used suffixes to indicate ship "class"
Wind: Brawler
Storm: Long range fire support
Rain: Carrier
Wing: Heavy Weapons
And yes, I am fully aware of the fact that the names are idiotic. Deal with it.
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General FAQ/ Rules:
Please note that every "size" that I give you in this document is the amount of pixels RADIUS. It also doesn't include bubble shields, etc.
Feel free to use custom sections. However, if you do use ones that are not from the custom sections section of this website, please put up a download of the sections, as well as information on where to place them.
SOME default coloring is now required on all ships. As well, all ships cores must be default colored (feel free to cover up the core though, of course).
If possible, please have thrusters on your ship that, when destroyed, result in your ship being left with 0 accel, 0 turning, 0 speed.
This is purely for fun.
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Judges
Please note that these are no longer accurate
I am releasing a series of "Judge" craft. These ships are designed to evaluate the strength of your ships in various categories, on a scale of A-D.
NO ship should be able to pass the "A" test. Yes, I do mean none (unless you speak with me). A class tests are identified by red coloring on the judge
Generally, ships that pass B class tests would be on the stronger side of (dps, hp, shielding, w/e) spectrum. B class tests are identified by yellow coloring on the judge
Ships that pass C class tests would be more or less average in the category. C class tests are identified by blue coloring on the judge
Ships that pass D class tests would be worse in that area. D class tests are identified by green coloring on the judge
Please note that these are not rules, just... guidelines really. Obviously, judges are not going to work correctly for all types of craft.
How to use the judges:
Damage test: Place a single, AI controlled (or, if necessary, manually controlled) ship (from your fleet) against the corresponding shield ship. If the ship breaks the green shield, it is D class, etc.
BEWARE OF SECTION SKIPPING WEAPONS. causes problems. If the shield seems to be healing much less than it should (or not at all) that's probably why.
Fighter Class Shield test: Spawn a single, AI controlled fighter, as well as the judge of the level you want to test your fighter at. If your fighter doesn't get destroyed, it passes.
Warning: This test does NOT have perfectly consistent results. Please run it multiple times, just to be sure.
Other Shield Test: Spawn a single, AI controlled ship of whatever class, as well as a judge of the corresponding class. These judges do NOT have classes. Instead, please use the time taken for the judge to destroy your ship as an indicator of the strength of the ships defenses
If the judge is unable to destroy your ship, please spawn a judge of the level higher. If this judge is unable to destroy your ship... please re-balance your ship

(as there is no class higher than dreadnought, if the dreadnought class judge is unable to destroy your ship, please spawn the heavy dreadnought class judge).
Be aware that your minifleet will not be only opposing such simple armaments. Expect to have to deal with AOE fire, Shield piercers, etc.
Please run all of these tests with AI enabled.
get the judges (edit: Updated download)here
Again, sorry. If anyone needs clarification on this, and/or has suggestions for additional judges, please tell me. Thank you very much.
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My Suggestions
My (approximate)recommended sizes: (in radius. I guess)
Fighters: 5-30
Corvettes: 40-80
Frigate: 60-120
Cruiser: 100-160
Dreadnaught/ Battleship: 120-200
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Coming Soon
Station stuff
Carriers
(Possibly) More ships in demo fleet
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Downloads:
(for now, just my stuff I guess)
Lightstriker:
Balance Fleet Download
My "Real" fleet (yes I'm still working on it)
AD's Stuff
Eri's Stuff
Blackhart's fleet
CheesyErwin's fleet
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Thanks To:
Natan_J: Coming up with a way to get useful non-fighter shield judges.
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As usual, all suggestions/ criticism about problems with this and/or on how to make this convenient/ easy for... everyone... would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you