Universal Self-Contained Reactors

[MacThule]

I made a cute little self-contained L11 reactor template that I've ended up using for several ad-hoc test stations (mostly target platforms). I just polished it up a bit to make it even easier to configure the chamber section, and it came out pretty nicely so I wanted to try and build some larger self-contained, "plug & play" models to upload for people to use as simple templates for station or projects that don't really require a custom reactor setup. They're definitely not as economical as a bespoke reactor system, but they save a hell of a lot of time on projects where that isn't a huge problem.

One thing I keep spinning on is what to fill the chamber compartments with. In my original model I am using red mattise crystal to fill the compartments directly tied to the reactor, and another yellow crystal for the compartments branching off the parent chambers. It's easier to fill them than leave them empty, because you can replace the volume with Fill in 5 seconds without knowing the size and they just work. But some of the reactors I deployed I never even add chambers to... which makes all that crystal a waste of valuable resources.

Any thoughts about what material could be easy to spot in those compartments, cheap, and present no substantial loss if left in place??

My L11 model is well armored for a L11 (3-layer minimum), but deliberately leaves much of the chamber array visible behind 2-ply crystal armor, with a small air-barrier to make swapping connections easier and force-field access hatches that make it look like something you might actually see on a ship if part of it is left exposed to interior spaces. So ideally something either attractive or neutral, which is why I went with the nice, glowing crystals and not pink hull or something along those lines.

L11.b13 (3rd shot is a wedged cross-section):



L17.a1 (WIP):



Anyone else want to share any good, compact reactor templates they've been using?

 

[MacThule]

There are the pictures! I was tired...

 

[DrTarDIS]

Mesh, Grill, Scaffold, composite, circuits. Low mass, low cost, ez replace.

 

[MacThule]

Thanks! Mesh or composite had come to mind. I may go with one or both, because I'd like to avoid using any actual resources. I was wondering about other options though because those two aren't very decorative.

 

[Fays]

girder's are the first thing that'd come to mind. opaque, low mass, 3 textures, blends well with dark grey/ black. (though if you don't nessicarally need to see it, trigger-area or cargo space blocks might do. I would use that to protect rail pathing spots before filling an area with systems, then fly through the ship later and remove the trigger area after... if i felt like it)

 

[JinM]

What's a level 11 reactor on count again?

edit: Ok just booted up Starmade...Why do you make a reactor with 299 blocks as template? 199 is the most efficient for chambers, or 1999...299 is still okay, I am just wondering why not 1999 or 199 if you allready spend the effort into doing a template.

 

[MacThule]

What's a level 11 reactor on count again?

edit: Ok just booted up Starmade...Why do you make a reactor with 299 blocks as template? 199 is the most efficient for chambers, or 1999...299 is still okay, I am just wondering why not 1999 or 199 if you allready spend the effort into doing a template.

Good point. Well, it kind of evolved into a template and is only now becoming a project. It was just an ad-hoc reactor itself initially, it ended up being pretty self-contained so I copied it then cleaned it up a bit. And it's more like 296 or something like that because of the symmetry and the armor baffles inside the reactor itself (experimental reactor durability improvement).

L11 is just odd anyway - increments of 5 would make more sense in terms of flexibility. Good point about the optimal levels issue. Not sure how relevant it will be for these because the focus is on convenience more than max efficiency, but I should probably at least find that optimal level list and make sure I fill those positions along the way.

 

[MacThule]

Did a platform with self-contained reactors at L1, L5, L10, and L15.

Download, spawn in, copy them to template, and enjoy a little convenience in powering your non-combat ships and facilities, or lay one of these down as an emergency backup for your main, bespoke reactor.

 

[MacThule]

This got me working on a whole set of modular components now, and ship frames built to handle them. Ugly, but kinda fun; they remind me of space RTS games that let you assemble ships based on components.

One weird thing I'm noticing about templates is that when you go to paste them, they seem to always anchor from the end opposite of the one I copy it from, which means that with modular thruster templates I have to actually build them backwards to create a template that when pasting will face the correct way.

I am finding myself wishing it was possible to sub-folder templates for better organized in-game organization and access!

 

[Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW]

This got me working on a whole set of modular components now, and ship frames built to handle them. Ugly, but kinda fun; they remind me of space RTS games that let you assemble ships based on components.

One weird thing I'm noticing about templates is that when you go to paste them, they seem to always anchor from the end opposite of the one I copy it from, which means that with modular thruster templates I have to actually build them backwards to create a template that when pasting will face the correct way.

I am finding myself wishing it was possible to sub-folder templates for better organized in-game organization and access!

Doesn't scroll wheel to rotate work for templates too?

 

[MacThule]

Doesn't scroll wheel to rotate work for templates too?

It does, and CTRL-scroll even rotates them on another axis.

Issue is that while an object can rotate along two axes, it is still anchored to your cursor by one end in terms of the end you place in contact with existing structures.

I never even noticed the problem until I started building some rod-like thruster assembly templates (in terms of shape think "warp nacelles" but completely different looking); because of graphics and the design around the thruster vent, I definitely want them facing a specific way. Paste lets me rotate them around their Z axis and also flip them, but when I copy a forward-facing thrust nacelle from the front, when I go to paste I am always holding the opposite corner from where I started. In this case that ends up being the exhaust vent, and I'm not interested in attaching the thruster with its exhaust vent facing into the ship.

Imagine holding a baton. You can twist it in your hand, you can rotate your hand around, but you can't flip the thing to get hold of the other end of it.

I actually assumed I was doing something wrong for a while (and still could be) so I went and tried recopying a few different ways, tried recopying from the rear as well but you can't rotate the selection box (although now I think of it I probably could use a different corner on the rear end to capture it all, but after trying a few different angles I gave up without attempting each angle from each corner of the vent). I went and re-built the thrust nacelle and tried again as well and ended up realizing that it was pretty consistent. Built it with forward-facing thrust exhaust, copied it - no problem placing with the exhaust vent outward.

If I think of a way to accurately describe it I will bug it; they should be able to allow scroll to move your contact point through all 8 corners of the selection cuboid, thus effectively "flipping" it around. Maybe alt-scroll or something.

 

[Zoolimar]

I never even noticed the problem until I started building some rod-like thruster assembly templates

It was always like this. For years.

 

[jayman38]

It's been suggested before and it probably needs to be suggested again: we need a way to offset pasting/placing/grabbing.

If not manual offsets, then the pasting needs to work the same way as placing multiple blocks with advanced mode; with the paste "springing" from that starting point, using the crosshair-targeted block's "normal" vector instead of the pasting element's anchor-point.

An idea on how this might be implemented, assuming vec is the template's anchor point and target_normal is the normal at the cursor:

if target_normal = {-1,0,0} then vec.x = vec.x - template_size_x + 1
elseif target_normal = {0,-1,0} then vec.y = vec.y - template_size_y + 1
elseif target_normal = {0,0,-1} then vec.z = vec.z - template_size_z + 1

With this kind of automatic offset, you might still have to build scaffolding to get the template into the right position, but it won't be as much scaffolding as, say, building a scaffold that encompasses the extent of your engine exhaust, just to paste a thruster assembly into the right position.

What two-button combos are available/unused, that we can use for cycling back and forth between different anchor points? (E.g. Ctrl-, and Ctrl-. or Ctrl-[ and Ctrl-]) Those unused combos could be suggested as the new controls for switching between the 8 different anchor corners. (Or if such combos are already implemented, their functionality could be properly documented, so we can start pasting things right.) If the updated anchor point is remembered between different blocks, there should probably be a third combo that returns the anchor point to the default. Otherwise, you can just switch to another block and back again to reset the anchor point.