Hull Plate

[Lecic]

Something I've noticed with small ships is that it can be very hard to include hull while still having useful systems. So, I'd like to propose a solution to this. Whenever you need to cover up a system, or just want a little additional armor, use hull plates!

Hull plates are thin (only a few pixels thick) slices of hull that can be placed on ships. They come in all color varieties, but only in hardened variants. They only have 20HP, but 50% armor, like full heavy armor blocks.

They're also great for building catwalks!

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I honestly don't know what to think of this. And I hardly ever don't know what to say. Oh wait, I guess I do, because I'm saying something now. OK, my pros and cons:

Pros:

• Would make an interesting addition to the game.
• It will make exposed systems less exposed.
• Catwalks would be cool.

Cons:

• Might not be possible to code without using a ton of IDs.
• It might seem a bit overpowered to people who always use hull, and it might just be overpowered in general when the hp system is implemented.

My opinion:

• Unknown.

 

[Lecic]

I honestly don't know what to think of this. And I hardly ever don't know what to say. Oh wait, I guess I do, because I'm saying something now. OK, my pros and cons:

Pros:

• Would make an interesting addition to the game.
• It will make exposed systems less exposed.
• Catwalks would be cool.

Cons:

• Might not be possible to code without using a ton of IDs.
• It might seem a bit overpowered to people who always use hull, and it might just be overpowered in general when the hp system is implemented.

My opinion:

• Unknown.

On cons-

• It'd only use one ID for each color of hull. That's barely any.
• We'll have to wait and see how the HP system works, really. It's only 20 HP, anyway.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

But on 6 sides it would be 6 x 20 = 120 hp with 50% armor. That's quite a lot.

 

[Lecic]

But on 6 sides it would be 6 x 20 = 120 hp with 50% armor. That's quite a lot.

You can only plate blocks that are exposed, though. You'd only be plating 5 sides of a block AT THE MOST on a ship (unless you've got floating singular blocks with hull plates on them for some reason), and usually 1 or 2.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

Oh, now I'm all in!

 

[jayman38]

I voted old. It sounds like simply a variation on the old half-block/block-slab idea. Plus, it'll inspire lots of bizarre ship designs with floating, isolated, single blocks for maximized armor.

I'm gradually warming up to the idea of blocks being half the size they are now. In the original minecraft, 1 meter cube was selected due to ease of harvesting and building. With StarMade's mass-salvaging systems and advanced build mode, dealing with a larger number of smaller blocks would be less of a hassle. On the other hand, needing more blocks for the same sized structure would take more memory and more processing power, and this game already brings most users' computers to their knees.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I would like this.


Possible Solution It can only be placed on system blocks

 

[Lecic]

I voted old. It sounds like simply a variation on the old half-block/block-slab idea. Plus, it'll inspire lots of bizarre ship designs with floating, isolated, single blocks for maximized armor.

They're different from half blocks. Half blocks are a full half meter wide. This would be maybe a 16th of a meter thick, barely noticeable unless yo're up by them.

Also, that's extremely doubtful. People who would "abuse" the plates like that would just use full blocks instead. Same amount of armor and much higher health for the same weight.

 

[Creeper__God]

This gets my full support. Will make building small but pretty fighters much simpler.

 

[молоток]

I too like this idea, but I think there may be a simpler and more balanced way to implement it.
Rather than having "hull plates" being a separate entity, have them just apply as a modifier to other blocks. Your super-dense fighter could have "wings" made from AMC blocks, with hull plates placed over them, but the hull plates would have no independent existence, and would only serve to change the appearance of the utilitarian components. You would also not need separate blocks or rotation to cover every side: once you apply a single "cover" to a block, that block now has that skin. I would further suggest that ANY damage done to the block will "blow the cover off" and expose the block underneath.
Potential uses for this system:
1: Hidden doors. Apply cover plates to doors, making them appear the same as normal hull.
2: Hidden switches or pressure plates. Switches, pressure plates, and other logic components could be concealed behind panels and only appear when damaged (but would still function)
3: Holograms. If you put the cover plates on intangible blocks, they would appear to be hull, but would be non-physical.
4: Pretty fighters.
5: more interesting battle damage
6: they could serve to "repaint" a ship's hull by applying different colored covers over the normal hull. any damage would expose the base color.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Hmmm sort of like Blockade Runners hull texture thing

Thats an improvement name whose letters are not on my keyboard

 

[ltmauve]

I too like this idea, but I think there may be a simpler and more balanced way to implement it.
Rather than having "hull plates" being a separate entity, have them just apply as a modifier to other blocks. Your super-dense fighter could have "wings" made from AMC blocks, with hull plates placed over them, but the hull plates would have no independent existence, and would only serve to change the appearance of the utilitarian components. You would also not need separate blocks or rotation to cover every side: once you apply a single "cover" to a block, that block now has that skin. I would further suggest that ANY damage done to the block will "blow the cover off" and expose the block underneath.
Potential uses for this system:
1: Hidden doors. Apply cover plates to doors, making them appear the same as normal hull.
2: Hidden switches or pressure plates. Switches, pressure plates, and other logic components could be concealed behind panels and only appear when damaged (but would still function)
3: Holograms. If you put the cover plates on intangible blocks, they would appear to be hull, but would be non-physical.
4: Pretty fighters.
5: more interesting battle damage
6: they could serve to "repaint" a ship's hull by applying different colored covers over the normal hull. any damage would expose the base color.

The problem is that there isn't enough memory to do that.

Also, can we get them in mesh, grill, and glass for catwalks?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Also, can we get them in mesh, grill, and glass for catwalks?

YES

 

[SomethingSlimy]

Wow, this would make X-Wing sized fighters actually decent at things besides maneuvering!

I can see how this would be used in bigger ships as well, lots of things could go in between the walls. And it makes sense - they're a meter thick! And it would make battle damage more interesting, ships could have more "guts" to them.

Maybe you could put "hull plates" over light blocks, which would still let light through to non-obviously light up your ship? For realism, the hull texture could be changed for those covers to have tiny lights on it, like the hull blocks in Space Engineers.

I think молоток's idea of just reskinning the block would work the best (but the cover should come off when the "hull plate" is destroyed, not in 1 hit!), though maybe "peeling the paint off the hull" should happen to all ships. Should "hull plates" be placeable on regular hull blocks?

 

[Theck]

There can be a "armored" state to blocks that will apply an overlay texture to all faces of the block like the metal mesh, adding some armor and extra HP. It will not use any block Id but it will have a drawing cost.

 

[Lecic]

I too like this idea, but I think there may be a simpler and more balanced way to implement it.
Rather than having "hull plates" being a separate entity, have them just apply as a modifier to other blocks. Your super-dense fighter could have "wings" made from AMC blocks, with hull plates placed over them, but the hull plates would have no independent existence, and would only serve to change the appearance of the utilitarian components. You would also not need separate blocks or rotation to cover every side: once you apply a single "cover" to a block, that block now has that skin. I would further suggest that ANY damage done to the block will "blow the cover off" and expose the block underneath.
Potential uses for this system:
1: Hidden doors. Apply cover plates to doors, making them appear the same as normal hull.
2: Hidden switches or pressure plates. Switches, pressure plates, and other logic components could be concealed behind panels and only appear when damaged (but would still function)
3: Holograms. If you put the cover plates on intangible blocks, they would appear to be hull, but would be non-physical.
4: Pretty fighters.
5: more interesting battle damage
6: they could serve to "repaint" a ship's hull by applying different colored covers over the normal hull. any damage would expose the base color.

I appreciate the thought you've put into this, but then you can't use it for catwalks or other super-thin objects, because it covers the whole block. It also sounds a bit more complex to implement than just a new block model. I encourage you to make your own thread on the subject, if you'd like to.