In the title. It has been a while since I saw even a small mech build on the forums, or the CC. Not to mention that rail contraptions are very rare. What happened? Why has the mech-building scene disappeared? Any explanation would be nice.
As stated above. The reason for their uselessness is the lack of friction, which means they have no way of moving forward except with thrusters, which is just awkward all around. They're a novelty if anything; most people that were interested built one when rails first dropped, and haven't done anything else regarding them since, because nothing has been added that makes building them more attractive.
The first thing I did on the first day that the first (functioning) rail dev build hit was make a tiny test walker turtle thing. I found out about the friction problem and never tried again.Is it just me, or are the people who say it's useless/pointless the ones that never made a mech to start with? Of course they're useless, they're over 50% logic. They'll never have a "use" outside of for fun.
I built these little power suits specifically for ground assault, station boarding, and for the upcoming fauna update. Unfortunately, on all the servers I've visited/joined so far, nearly everyone is obsessed with capital ships. It's really upsetting when you find out you spent all your time building fun, cool stuff that can't be used anywhere because everyone else is flying around in planets with guns and engines strapped on them.I've built two of the above, and in ground battles they're actually pretty solid if movement is controlled by a player while the shooting is controlled by AI.
But, since no one does ground battles... why bother?
I was actually considering making a "boarding fire support drone" small ship (piloted, not AI, the drone part is just fluff) because I ran across your "power armor" designs. Battle bricks may do combat and planet cracking well but they're not fun to build. I'm working on a more RP oriented cargo ship right now, but the boarding support craft keeps pecking at the back of my head.I built these little power suits specifically for ground assault, station boarding, and for the upcoming fauna update. Unfortunately, on all the servers I've visited/joined so far, nearly everyone is obsessed with capital ships. It's really upsetting when you find out you spent all your time building fun, cool stuff that can't be used anywhere because everyone else is flying around in planets with guns and engines strapped on them.
What's a creative builder to do?
This GIF is weirdly entrancing.
You and I need to get together then. My new transport ship has quite a few features that might interest you.I was actually considering making a "boarding fire support drone" small ship (piloted, not AI, the drone part is just fluff) because I ran across your "power armor" designs. Battle bricks may do combat and planet cracking well but they're not fun to build. I'm working on a more RP oriented cargo ship right now, but the boarding support craft keeps pecking at the back of my head.
A lot of the titan pilots feel pretty threatened about the concept of torpedo bombers and similar small craft--in reality unless the hull is literally dotted with point defense and anti-fighter arrays, small fighters will have the mobility advantage (if the pilot is skilled enough) and can do some serious damage to weak points (such as the thrusters). Their balance isn't a weapon thing, their balance comes from the fact that even a glancing blow from a battleship scale weapon is going to swat them out of the sky. This... seems to elude the "generation award-for-attending" types, who want their Big Brick Of Doom to just win. Period. Full stop.Schine has said they are going to be doing some small vs large ship balancing, so ostensibly smaller stuff will be a bit more useful in the future. No idea what it'll look like, though.
Possibly... I actually do my tinkering and design in creative mode offline when my net is running slowly so I have yet to join any large population servers (I don't count anything small hosted within my social circle).You and I need to get together then. My new transport ship has quite a few features that might interest you.
The answer for balancing is warheads. They need to tweak the damage to something respectable like 250,000-500,000. Obviously, you'd have a limited supply of these but they can be quite effective if used properly.A lot of the titan pilots feel pretty threatened about the concept of torpedo bombers and similar small craft--in reality unless the hull is literally dotted with point defense and anti-fighter arrays, small fighters will have the mobility advantage (if the pilot is skilled enough) and can do some serious damage to weak points (such as the thrusters). Their balance isn't a weapon thing, their balance comes from the fact that even a glancing blow from a battleship scale weapon is going to swat them out of the sky. This... seems to elude the "generation award-for-attending" types, who want their Big Brick Of Doom to just win. Period. Full stop.
So there's some need for balancing. And possibly some rocks to throw at the folks that don't understand that their wall of battle ships are only able to wall of battle because they generally require screening ships so that wolfpacks of smaller ships don't shred them. >.>
As the drone thread proves, when they're picked apart by the flies, they really lose their shit. But I digress...
That's actually a thread I'd read through, and am referencing, with that post...The answer for balancing is warheads. They need to tweak the damage to something respectable like 250,000-500,000. Obviously, you'd have a limited supply of these but they can be quite effective if used properly.
Creativity and skill would be rewarded and make death bricks obsolete. You'd see a drastic decrease in the amount of wannabe capital ship pilots lagging up the system. War would have to be fought with brains, otherwise, it will be very expensive to upset your neighbors.