Advanced Build Mode Text Tool

[rocketman221]

I would like to have a tool in advanced build mode for creating text with blocks. Creating large signs one block at a time is very annoying and time consuming. You can create a template for each character, but it's a pain to select a template when there are hundreds of them.
What I would suggest is a tool where you can type whatever you want, select a font, then place your text.
The text would be made up of blocks and wedges from the currently selected stack on the hotbar.
Fonts would be stored in xml files stored client side, so anyone can easily create their own fonts.
Placing the text in game would be done just like pasting in a template.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I suggested ideas around a decal block a while back. I think kupu or saber coined the phrase decal block. I think this would be a way to save time and allow for text to be displayed on anything.
Kupu's thread

 

[rocketman221]

I suggested ideas around a decal block a while back. I think kupu or saber coined the phrase decal block. I think this would be a way to save time and allow for text to be displayed on anything.
Kupu's thread

That sounds more like a larger version of the display block.
I want to actually create text with blocks. That way I can make it from any material I want and in any font.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

It's more of a projector to project the text at any size onto the hull. It should theoretically work for anything. Kind of like a re-sizable sprite or texture overlay.

 

[jayman38]

I disagree with this suggestion.

It seems like too much trouble for too little benefit. Players, especially new ones, would constantly flood chat channels with questions on how to make it work "right", how to use some weird, obscure TTF file that they found on a free font site, how to do even the simplest stuff. For the effort required, it just seems to be ever-so-slightly more trouble just to go through the effort to actually design the text yourself, especially considered the size of blocks, compared to the text players will likely want. Constant complaints that they can't type out their whole faction name inside a 3x5 meter billboard and that sort of nonsense.

Bottom line: Someone would have to figure out how to make each character in the font, and type it into the XML. It's nearly the same effort as a template set. Yeah, this would have the benefit of using any material you want, but block replacement would do the same thing for template materials. Hopefully, we'll eventually get any-shape block replacement, so that wedges and other shapes are replaced along with regular block, as long as they are the same color and material. So I'd instead recommend a template folder structure upgrade to the existing template system (to easily find what you need without having to wade through every other template on the system).

 

[rocketman221]

A graphical font editor could be made quite easily. I could probably write one in an hour or two. With a bit more work, it could be made to import and rasterize TTF fonts, although they would need some tweaking by hand to make them look nice.
The purpose of the tool isn't to put text on a 3x5 billboard, it's more like to write your faction name on the side of your 500 meter long shipyard in letters that can be read from the next sector.

I wouldn't mind having a better template management system either though.

 

[MeRobo]

So basically you want build helper for text, did I get this right?

 

[rocketman221]

So basically you want build helper for text, did I get this right?

It's not a build helper, It would basically be like having a template for each character in every font you have. You would type out your text and the templates for each character you type would be connected together so you can paste it on whatever you want. The template wouldn't use a specific type of block though. It would use the currently selected blocks on your hotbar.

A build helper wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a whole block and a wedge. Without wedges, it's hard to make smaller fonts look good.