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## Building Your Ship

The following is a suggested method of building a ship using historical sources. Even if you do not want to build a ship that existed historically, using plans of similar ships does help making it look realistic. However, you are free to choose what ship you want to build and methods to use.

*Step 1 - Decide and collect plans*
Decide what type of ship or what exact ship you want to build. For new players, it is possible but not necessarily recommended to start with the biggest ship classes possible, because the sheer dimensions of those take long to build and therefore slow down the learning process, making every building error cost a lot more time. Also, smaller ship like Destroyer Escorts or Destroyers need less crew to be sailed effectively, making battles with them a lot more frequent.
Once you have choosen what ship to build, look up plans and collect some general data (ship length, beam, draft, speed and armament). Especially usefull are plans from the side and the top. To find them, use Google Pictures, Wikipedia, and more specialized websites like Shipbucket.

* *Step 2 - Make side view Outline of your Ship - Keel*
Build the outline of the main hull from a **side view.**

* *Step 3 - Make Overhead Outline of your Ship*
Add the outline of the main hull from **above.**

* *Step 4 - Plan out your engines and smoke stack*
This is critical you get this right. Engines power your ship, you need make sure they have exhaust to the outside. What is tricky you need maintain a path, especially for Boilers to vent exhaust per magma. What's this mean? If you have 3 magma blocks in side your Obsidian encased boiler, you need make sure the path of those blocks to exit the the smoke stack remains 3 blocks. Path of blocks, must be 3 wide, must not narrow. Remember you need add also a Fuel Sign (so you can tell what you need) Steam Generator is also needed for electrical power (not required but can be issue without one if ship shutdown), batteries and a battery sign to measure power. (This will be needed for sensors (radar/detector/sonar) and other equipment. How to determine how much of engines you need: The maximum speed is, in engineering terms, as fast as the engines can push. Your craft gets slowed by drag. If the engine power is the same as the drag, you have reached maximum speed. If you want to know how much engine power you need to go a certain speed, you can use this approximate formula (use of a calculator is recommended): Front area \* Speed^4.1 \* 0.0005 = Engine power, with the units being blocks, knots and Horsepowers.

* *Step 5 - Build your superstructure*
This is the name of building your placing on top of the main deck (main floor) of your ship. In this place you should build places where your Bridge will be and locations of your weapons or other items you may want above the main deck.

* *Step 6 - Weapons placement*
Once the superstructure is done, you need place your weapons (turrets, torpedo launchers, or other weapons). Adding magazines to store ammunition for your various weapons and gun powder (these areas should be protected by heavier blocks if on larger ship, these is explosive blocks). Firecontrol and weapons directors for your weapons (cannons & aa-guns as of this writing) need to be placed.

* *Step 7 - Other Equipment*
Other items needed for your ship, such as fuel locations, battery signs, setting up your bridge with the main sign, Engine Telegraph, Helm Sign, Ship's Wheel, Radio, Radar, Sonar signs

* *Step 8 - Miscellaneous items*
This essentially other equipment not vital to a ship. Such adding berthing for your crew (this maybe mandatory later for vcrew), offices, store age for Cargo Blocks (used to fix the ship or food creation).

* *Step 9 - Testing*
All vehicles need to be tested to see if all the parts are working properly; See Testing below. Essentially this is includes if the ship is too heavy. This is also to see how fast the ship can travel (if it's fast enough, fuel used up too fast etc.)