Big Blue

Big Blue also known simply as Blue Ship is a Pre-Built Large Grid Ship that is present along with the Big Red ship in several easy-start type games. It is also formerly known as Blue 2. In game lore, the blue fleet is possibly owned by the Sol Cooperative faction.

Gallery

• 

  Big Blue 2022, front with new railgun.

• 

  Big Blue 2022, backside.

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  Big Blue 2022, top.

• 

  Old Big Blue Ship design from 2016

Design

The Big Blue is a long and slender vessel, with a narrow (and fragile) midsection, which makes it weak to ramming attacks.

Although the Big Blue class does feature a hangar in the forward section, it is smaller than that of the Big Red class, and has only two entrances/exits. Using patience and careful maneuvering, a player may be able to fit two of the pre-built Fighters into the hangar. It is worth noting that Big Blue's hangar deck is made of heavy armour blocks, which will limit damage from small ship thruster but the top thrusters of the pre-built fighter often disables a few of the interior lights within the hangar.

Lightly armed and without a  Refinery it is unclear what this vessel was intended for. But with its advanced oxygen systems,  Medical Room and  Jump Drive it can safely be assumed that this was an investigation and exploration vessel. But without a viable form of repair or ore processing, it maybe just a small jump carrier for deep space travel. One theory is that with its small frontal profile that this ship was meant to be a light exploration or asteroid field patrol ship.

Contents

Physical Properties

• Length: 40 Blocks (100 meters)
• Width: 19 Blocks (47.5 meters)
• Height: 8 or 9* Blocks (20 or 22.5 meters)
• The forward dorsal gatling turret extends one block up from the hull, which itself is 8 blocks tall.
• Mass: 1'352'714 kg (Measurement may be somewhat inaccurate due to cargo being in the ship's conveyor system when the measurement was taken.)

Maneuvering systems

• 2x  Gyroscope
• 10x  Large Thruster
• 18->17x  Small Thruster
• 1x Jump Drive

Defensive systems

• 1x  Gatling Turret
• 1x  Interior Turret
• 2x  Rocket Launcher

Power systems

• 12x  Batteries
• 4-8x  Small Reactor
• 2x  Solar Panel

Cargo & processing systems

• 1x  Assembler
• 2x  Collector
• 2-2x  Connector
• 15-13x  Small Cargo Container

Utility systems

• 8x  Airtight Hangar Doors^
• 4x  Air Vents
• 1x  Antenna (named "Blue Ship" however the name of the grid is "Big Blue")^
• 1x  Beacon (formerly named "Blue 2," now "Blue Ship")
• 2x  Button Panels^
• 7x  Cameras^
• 8x  Door
• 1x  Gravity Generator
• 30-39x  Interior Light^
• 3-x  Landing Gears
• 1x  Medical Room
• 1x  O2 H2 Generator
• 3x  Oxygen Tanks
• 6x  Passenger Seats^
• 2x  Spotlight
• 8x  Timer Blocks

History

Legacy

Since the development into Beta status of Space Engineers, Big Blue and Big Red have both benefited from refits to both Large Ships.

Big Blue lost one small  Ion Thruster, two  Small Cargo Containers, and its front  Landing Gear. In return it gained; twelve  Batteries, four  Small Reactor, eight  Airtight Hangar Door, four  Air Vent, one  Beacon, two  Button Panels, seven  Cameras, nine  Interior Lights, one Medical room, one  O2 H2 Generator, three  Oxygen Tanks, six  Passenger Seats, and eight Timer Blocks and one Jump Drive. The  Antenna was also moved.

This is the version of the Big Blue that still appears in the "Red Ship" and "Green Station" games. The old version can be seen in the 2013 build of the game that comes with the Space Engineers Deluxe DLC.

Warfare 2 Update

For the Warfare 2 Update, a redesigned and modernised version of Big Blue called "Blue Corvette" was made with new thrusters and weapons. This ship appears in the Asteroid Armory game start.

The modernised version features four frontal static artillery weapons, a railgun, and two gatling turrets in the front. It also has autocannons under the rear, one in each thruster block. There are four conveyor tubes which have an open end in the central section, it is easy to fit additional turrets in there. It has a frontal connector which allows easy docking and entry from there. Another major difference from it's previous version is that the number of jump drives is doubled, increasing maximum jump range.

An interesting reference to the Space Engineers alpha trailer is that the ship now features a large nuclear reactor instead of several small ones. In this trailer, the Blue Ship that is being welded, and then rammed, has a large reactor too, while the outdated version included in the game did not.

The modernised version can be used as a highly effective pirate attack vessel, both for attacks against NPC factions, and real players. Painting it in some darker, camouflage, color will make it very difficult to see with bare eyes. While unseen, you may fire a barrage from the artilleries and the railgun. The ship features powerful reverse thrusters, as did its outdated counterpart, so going full in reverse, disabling dampeners and making the enemy have to chase you is a very good battle plan. Maintain a distance of slightly less than two kilometers and fire artillery and railguns at the enemy ship. The enemy will not be able to fire back at you, as the projectiles stop after two kilometers, and you are moving away from it, so they will explode before hitting you. If you maintain distance at about 1.5 kilometers, a hit with missiles and gatling turrets is possible, but this brings you in the range of enemy artilleries and railguns.

Signal Update

The newest version is Blue Ship.

Notes

• There is a control group set up by default called *Door* which contains all of the doors in the ship.
• All inventories are attached to the ship's conveyor system, with the exception of the Interior Turret, which is incompatible.