Hull Panels

[SuperWookie]

It would be great to have flat, panel like versions of hull blocks that provide only a slight armour bonus, but are mainly for cosmetic purposes. Similar to slabs in Minecraft, but thinner. This would be useful for when you want to cover 1x rows of blocks, such as power or weapons. I'll provide an example of my anti-missile turret, showing how I can't add any hull to the guns to make them suit the ship, as they will look dumb being too thick.

 

[NeonSturm]

You shouldn't build that small. moar GIGANTISM!

It should be easy to invert normals and culling for some blocks.

 

[SuperWookie]

They're only Anti-missile turrets, they don't need to be big :D

 

[NeonSturm]

They're only Anti-missile turrets, they don't need to be big :D

My suggestion should really become true to counter this!

If missiles get exponentially (small exponent) more hp and damage with block count, but have a maximum damage which can hit your ship,
they also have more hp vs point defence.

That would solve the whole checker-board-turret problem.

 

[SuperWookie]

In a lot of sci-fi shows, and even real life, missiles are easy to shoot down if the turrets are sophisticated enough. I agree they should have some hp, however its unrealistic to have a tank with a payload flying towards you at around 200mph (depending on your missile speed).

 

[Viridis00]

Seconding OP's suggestion. I've been asking for slabs for ages now. Rails give even more reason for them to exist because of clearance problems with full blocks. a 1/2m and/or 1/4m would add a lot to building aesthetics and mechanics.

 

[Edymnion]

I too would like to see slabs as an option.

 

[Lecic]

The suggestion isn't about slabs, it's about panels, which are thinner. I actually suggested those a while ago (like, last november), so I definitely support this. Mesh ones would be great for catwalks, also.

 

[lupoCani]

I was just thinking about how to best implement this, and then I find a thread making the exact same suggestion... Oh well, I suppose the idea can't be particularly unique.

I can see a number of benefits to this beyond turrets. When planning to make this suggestion myself, the primary application I had in mind was for fighters. They're generally kind of thin, and needing to dedicate the entire outer layer of blocks to hull, in order not to look hideous, is really damn limiting. They could also be used for interior walls.

The issue with implementation I was thinking about is rotation.
The most simple way to deal with it would be to rotate it like any other block, facing the plate towards any of the six sides. This would work for flat surfaces, but not for any kind of inwards corner. That would be annoying for fighters, bad for turrets and outright horrible for interiors.
Optimally, each side would be toggled independently. Unfortunately, that would require six bits for six sides, and the game won't go any higher than five. (Four rotation bits plus the activation bit.) I suppose you could cannibalize an hp bit to get the job done, but that would still leave an awful lot of rotations to cycle through in build mode.
What I think I've settled on is having no rotation whatsoever. Instead, panel "blocks" would adapt to their surroundings. All sides of the block would be transparent by default, and only render when they're on top of a solid face. So, placed in the air, a white panel block would be invisible. Placed on the floor, the top of the block it's placed on would turn white. Placed on the wall, the side of the block it touches would turn white. Placed in a corner, both/all three of the surfaces it touches would turn white, etc. This covers nearly all uses, except some that may arise when using solid blocks for interior detailing. Such cases would easily be solved by using normal hull in those particular spots.

There's also the matter of thickness and hitbox. To make it as simple as possible, I suggest a thickness of 0,000. This would eliminate any issues with surface-to-surface sliding rails and make outwards corners not horrible.
The hitbox should be the individual, rendered panels. Of course, since they would be two-dimensional it would be more of a hit-surface than a hitbox.

 

[Valiant70]

My suggestion should really become true to counter this!

If missiles get exponentially (small exponent) more hp and damage with block count, but have a maximum damage which can hit your ship,
they also have more hp vs point defence.

That would solve the whole checker-board-turret problem.

Where's my nope.jpg when I need it?

 

[zigyzigy]

Yes I was thinking exactly this yesterday but was too tired to post here.

Maybe start adding in the difderent blocks that panels would be useful for into the OP.

I would also like to see this option for all the door types and for glass.

 

[Edymnion]

The suggestion isn't about slabs, it's about panels, which are thinner.

Semantics.
Whatever you want to call them, they're blocks that are less than a full block in height.

 

[lupoCani]

Now that I'm at a computer, I've procured some graphical clarification-

Panel auto-placement: Blue is a panel block, red is a visible panel, grey is hull.

Additional clarification

Hitboxes. This goes for anything, from salvagers to weapons to build mode.

 

[lupoCani]

Oh, and how could I forget- why the zero-thickness is important. Compare these two alternatives:

There's also the matter of putting panels on rails that slide wall-to-wall, which would not be possible with thick panels.