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I have tried to make a smallest ship which was able to reach Vulkanus and go back to Navius without manual re-supply.

And currently my record is just 76 tons.

The restrictions are:
* Only standard quality items
* Modules 2 level max
* Ship should be self-satisfied - all supply should be crafted on board using asteroids
* Ship should be able to reach at least Vulkanus securely (not by chance, but be able to shoot all dangerous asteroids during the journey and on static orbit, so round protection)

Didn't test it with other planets, but the only problem is a single solar panel.. Maybe for other planet need to put two of them.

What do you think?

Looking good!
The only issue I see here is I really doubt a single furnace will be enough for sustained usage. You'll have to wait to re-build an ammo buffer between each runs.
Other than that, and since the objective is small size, it's pretty neat.

Actually it pretty ok for Navius-Vulkanus journey. The maximum speed is about 100, so no too much shots required.

Vulkanus gives enough solar energy to fly back immediately, but after reaching Navius maybe need to wait for a few minutes until Accumulator will be 100%.


And in addition, I was able to decrease size to 75.6 tons now

Optimization for number of rocket launches is more important than weight in early game. It is waste to launch last rocket without full capacity utilization. My early ship was designed in editor to be about 80-90 tons but after optimization in real game it has grown to 100 ton, can reach any of the first three planets and stay on orbit indefinitely.

SaboteurKiev wrote: Thu Mar 27, 2025 4:48 pm And in addition, I was able to decrease size to 75.6 tons now

So, I've been thinking:
If you move your crusher and a couple combinators to the side of the hub, you could bring your whole engine/chem plants complex upward by three tiles. This may bring the lower part of the ship in the range of your top turret, allowing you to ditch the second turret along with a few inserters, and make everything a bit lighter in exchange for a bit of width.

Still, the more I look at it, the more I like the design. I might give it a try when I inevitably return to the game.

angramania wrote: Thu Mar 27, 2025 10:17 pm Optimization for number of rocket launches is more important than weight in early game. It is waste to launch last rocket without full capacity utilization. My early ship was designed in editor to be about 80-90 tons but after optimization in real game it has grown to 100 ton, can reach any of the first three planets and stay on orbit indefinitely.

Different goals, different ship
After reaching first three planets and gather technologies, there are a lot of way of re-optimization. For example, legendary items can make my ship smaller.
But the contest was described before, and one of the interesting moments was to use just two chemical plants instead of 3.
I was thinking about one, but it is pretty complicated

Ezarkal wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 4:08 am

SaboteurKiev wrote: Thu Mar 27, 2025 4:48 pm And in addition, I was able to decrease size to 75.6 tons now

So, I've been thinking:
If you move your crusher and a couple combinators to the side of the hub, you could bring your whole engine/chem plants complex upward by three tiles. This may bring the lower part of the ship in the range of your top turret, allowing you to ditch the second turret along with a few inserters, and make everything a bit lighter in exchange for a bit of width.

Still, the more I look at it, the more I like the design. I might give it a try when I inevitably return to the game.

There is a rumor, that wider ships are more slow. I am not sure about this, but if it is true, it could be the problem.
But actually I already thinking about this version. Wider ship - more direct access to the hub, so there could be few optimization moments.

Also I think that all ship logic can be put to a single combinator (+1 static), but maybe I am too lazy to rebuild scheme...

Yea, the width of the ship is directly tied to the speed, people have found it in the source code. So narrower is better. And this setup is about as narrow as you can get