Shipyards Factory Integration

[ReaperOfShadows]

I don't know about everyone else but one of the main issues that keep me from getting any of my larger ships into a server that actually look good is the sheer number of block types used. Its one thing to cue up 15 or so kinds of blocks for construction but if you have 50+ block types in one ship it takes a long time to cue them all, especially the block types that require the construction of other components.

(SUGGESTION STARTS HERE)

Shipyards already have a lot of cool functionality however i think its missing the main point of a shipyard, constructing ship parts. Id really like to see a feature where a shipyard that's linked to a factory system will cue the linked factory's to construct the necessary blocks to build a loaded ship design and turn off the factories or change the cued block to another needed type when the necessary number is reached. This will allow players who cant stand having to cue a large amount of block types the chance to build large ships that they can actually be, at least somewhat proud of and get them onto a multiplayer server where they can be put to use or shown to others.

 

[Valck]

Id really like to see a feature where a shipyard that's linked to a factory system will cue the linked factory's to construct the necessary blocks to build a loaded ship design and turn off the factories or change the cued block to another needed type when the necessary number is reached. This will allow players who cant stand having to cue a large amount of block types the chance to build large ships that they can actually be, at least somewhat proud of and get them onto a multiplayer server where they can be put to use or shown to others.

I'd be surprised if there weren't already some of the logic gurus hard at work figuring out fully automated shipyards within the bounds of the current logic system, and I'm almost certain it would be possible to pull off.

 

[Ithirahad]

As it stands that would only be possible with a ton of factories and storage blocks, and a predetermined set of blueprints. There's no way to get a materials list from a shipyard into a factory through logic, and there's no way to switch what a factory produces via logic either.

 

[Keptick]

I'd be surprised if there weren't already some of the logic gurus hard at work figuring out fully automated shipyards within the bounds of the current logic system, and I'm almost certain it would be possible to pull off.

It is, now that I think about it. You'd need a different factory for each different block, and it could only produce a single type of ship (unless you want to reconfigure everything)

 

[Valck]

It is, now that I think about it. You'd need a different factory for each different block, and it could only produce a single type of ship (unless you want to reconfigure everything)

With a bit of buffering I think it could be taken even further, to the point where factories produce on demand; of course you'd still need one factory per block type though, since there is no way of changing a factory's recipe programmatically.

 

[Keptick]

With a bit of buffering I think it could be taken even further, to the point where factories produce on demand; of course you'd still need one factory per block type though, since there is no way of changing a factory's recipe programmatically.

Yea. What I had in mind would pretty much involve the proper quantity of materials in a storage and pressing a button to produce the ship.

Basically, you could have one storage per factory that would pull out the exact quantity of ores/materials from the deposit box in a single pull cycle and then turn off via logic. Then the factories pull materials from those storages and produce what they need without excess since they'd only have the perfect quantities of raw materials available. Last step would be having the shipyard's storage pull everything out of the factories.

So it's possible to do in-game atm but there's multiple downsides. It could only produce a single bp unless you're willing to change the storage pull quantities (which is a pain), and it would only work if you imput all the needed materials at once, if there's not enough it'd mess up. Still better than manually producing everything I guess :P.

 

[Edymnion]

Well, thats a reason to keep a unified theme to your ships. If all your ships take the same color of blocks, its a lot easier to start mass producing them.

 

[Blaza612]

It would be nice to actually queue up the production of different blocks in general. I don't want to have to watch my factories and manually switch production whenever it finishes.

 

[aceface]

I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much want something like this. I hate to have to produce every teeeeny tiny little thing for my ship.

Why can't the shipyard just tell my factories what to produce and produce it for me? Would be so nice. We do the "hard" work by mining, the factories and shipyard should do their "hard" work.

 

[aceface]

Bench has it ever been considered to integrate factories with shipyards in some shape or form?

 

[petrenko17]

Shipyards are supposed to save time. At the current state they are.. Well...

I have got a shipyard who has more !?

 

[aceface]

Shipyards are supposed to save time. At the current state they are.. Well...

I have got a shipyard who has more !?

Yeah they don't exactly save time. Unless you've got a ton of every single block for ships in your storages and you are going to build a small ship.

Also ReaperOfShadows you should maybe add to the thread a function that shipyards tell you what raw materials a ship requires.

 

[Ithirahad]

Keep your fleets' materials consistent and they do definitely save time... Here in the Imperium, we generally have a ton of brown standard armor, black standard armor, black hull, PlexDoors, white lights, yellow lights, blue crystal armor, a little glass, a little black and brown advanced armor, some carved lukrah, yellow force fields, and a bunch of rails, so we just make extra of all of that and we can sometimes spawn in ships without even having to make anything custom. When we do, it's usually odds and ends which can be made fairly quickly and then automatically are transported into the shipyard, making the process of building ships a lot easier. No more reading through long lists of necessary materials, hunting them down in storage, and putting them in, just get the stuff made and transferred to storage and the shipyard does it for you.

That said, factory integration would be great, but can come later.

 

[aceface]

Keep your fleets' materials consistent and they do definitely save time... Here in the Imperium, we generally have a ton of brown standard armor, black standard armor, black hull, PlexDoors, white lights, yellow lights, blue crystal armor, a little glass, a little black and brown advanced armor, some carved lukrah, yellow force fields, and a bunch of rails, so we just make extra of all of that and we can sometimes spawn in ships without even having to make anything custom. When we do, it's usually odds and ends which can be made fairly quickly and then automatically are transported into the shipyard, making the process of building ships a lot easier. No more reading through long lists of necessary materials, hunting them down in storage, and putting them in, just get the stuff made and transferred to storage and the shipyard does it for you.

That said, factory integration would be great, but can come later.

It's hard when there's lots of weapons systems and misc decorative blocks that are used.

 

[alterintel]

Replicators can't get here fast enough

 

[ReaperOfShadows]

Hey guys thx for the replies :D

aceface yes i agree it would also be nice to have the shipyard display the necessary raw resource amount as well.

So Devs whats your view on this idea?
planned already, considered or just not the direction you want to take shipyards in?