Consume paint from inventory instead of crafting; make hull color an option in advanced buildmode

[Thalanor]

Let me preface this by stating that this suggestion is, admittedly, a purely personal opinion and a radical one at that. Many might disagree here and I know it; even if there was hypothetical support for this, I am only suggesting making it a config option, not forcing this onto any server.

UPDATED with excellent idea by Tajin


The basic idea is very simple: any hull block when held by the player will be a grey hull block. In advanced build mode, a color palette could be added; selecting a color there would place all blocks from there on in that color until another is selected again. When placing hull with any other color selected than grey, the game would consume color capsules held in the player's inventory. Colored hull would no longer have to be crafted, but still require the use of paint. This removes the need for complex crafting trees factory-side. Obtaining resources and crafting the needed items would still be required for anything that has some function gameplay- wise - this suggestion purely aims at starting to make decoration and creativity less of an artificial nuisance than it is now.

 

[молоток]

I like this as an option for free build servers, but I also think that survival servers should have to use paint to change the color of hulls.

 

[BananaStand]

I like this as an option for free build servers, but I also think that survival servers should have to use paint to change the color of hulls.

Why just free build server? Just curious thanks.

 

[refirendum]

because paint is realistic for the depiction of the resources required to make a ship.
There's no point to any survival mechanic in 100% admin-spawn/creative mode, but in a survival game, if you want nice stuff you gotta make it nice by finding the resources to make it so. That's the whole point. if it were that easy to just make ships whatever color just with a color selector in survival-gameplay, it would hamper the game's possibly economy: some factions favor certain colors and others favor others, and due to production ability differences, it encourages trading between factions and encourages territorial claims to systems for those resources. it also encourages people to join factions to use those more scarce blocks, meaning you don't have hundreds of one-person factions floating around. as a survival mechanic it has many more benefits than the annoyance of having to produce it. (building blueprints, in my opinion, should be largely done in singleplayer anyways except for maybe faction group-effort for interiors/details after the main structure and function is complete)

 

[jorgekorke]

If only they fixed the ultra-rare asteroids.... I use blue as a detailing color...

And it's ridiculous the process for creating brown paint. Thank god I dislike this color... hehehe

 

[jath]

Personally, i wish paint could be applied directly to the placed block, on one side or all, even painting only half of one face.

 

[Tajin]

Being able to use the paint-capsules directly would be much better.

Heres what I would suggest:
1. Remove the colored blueprints from the factories
2. No more colored blocks in the inventory
3. Salvaging colored blocks should only return regular grey blocks (so you'll have to repaint them every time you place em)
4. Make color capsules stackable
5. Blueprints to make colors should have a slightly higher yield

So you build everything in grey, then color it.
(or alternately include a color selector as mentioned above to directly place the blocks in the specified color – however, this should still use the color capsules from your inventory)

 

[Thalanor]

Tajin I kinda like this. Combined with more color capsule yield, this would make even the most complex to craft hull colors feasible by just having all required colors in the inventory at once. Although I still believe color should be "free", your suggestion combined with the advanced build mode addition of mine would be a good middle ground.

Building everything in grey first makes it VERY tedious to color large ships though. As such, hull receiving color on placement should do it.

EDIT: Front post updated with excellent middle ground suggestion from Tajin. This would not have any economic impact but greatly increase usability. молоток refirendum BananaStand jath jorgekorke

 

[Lecic]

I don't really like to idea of completely replacing what we currently have. Selling paint is probably a lot less lucrative than selling full hull blocks.

Plus, this would probably take up more inventory slots for paint capsules.

 

[Tajin]

Lets see. Say I want to decorate my ship in 3 colors

1 stack of grey armor
1 stack of black armor
1 stack of red armor

With the system mentioned above it would be just:
1 stack of grey armor
1 combined stack of paint capsules


I do think beeing able to put the paint capsules in a combined stack is an important aspect.

 

[Thalanor]

^ Agree. On the selling aspect: of course selling paint does not offer the same profit as selling colored hull. But the equivalent of selling colored hull Lecic would then be selling grey hull + paint. If someone wishes to add 20000 red advanced armor to his ship, they'd still need both. Unless of course they have a grey advanced armor production going on, in which case their economy is already up to their own requirements and it doesn't make sense to try and sell them already-colored hull. They would only need paint one way or the other, it just saves them the trouble of restructuring their entire factory. Paint is the resource in question here; coupling it with the armor is just too much of an artificial constraint, and artificial constraints aren't fun, even if they increase some trade mogul's profit margin by a few notches because some rich customers aren't willing to put three extra levels on their factory floor just to have some shipyard colors.

 

[lazarus78]

I would opt for the Space Engineer method. (Skip to 0:53)


That way we only need a single set of hull blocks and it covers all the colors.

 

[Lecic]

I would opt for the Space Engineer method. (Skip to 0:53)


That way we only need a single set of hull blocks and it covers all the colors.

Schema already shot this down, numerous times. It would add an extra byte to blocks to have RGB colors, which would vastly increase lag.

 

[lazarus78]

Schema already shot this down, numerous times. It would add an extra byte to blocks to have RGB colors, which would vastly increase lag.

Not if the changing of colors was just replacing the block with the desired color. All the blocks still exist, but we just never see them in item form. Want to paint a block red? Then it will remove the default gray and pop in a red one. It would work more as a mass replacement, so no extra RGB data on each block.

 

[Lecic]

Not if the changing of colors was just replacing the block with the desired color. All the blocks still exist, but we just never see them in item form. Want to paint a block red? Then it will remove the default gray and pop in a red one. It would work more as a mass replacement, so no extra RGB data on each block.

The Space Engineers method uses RGB colors. If you're gonna link a video on the Space Engineers method, I'm going to assume you mean RGB color changing.

Now, if you mean that we have a ton of hull blocks for a bunch of RBG variations, that is also not really possible, due to a maximum block ID limit of 1024.

 

[CyberTao]

The Space Engineers method uses RGB colors. If you're gonna link a video on the Space Engineers method, I'm going to assume you mean RGB color changing.

Now, if you mean that we have a ton of hull blocks for a bunch of RBG variations, that is also not really possible, due to a maximum block ID limit of 1024.

No Lecic, he's saying take the hulls out of our inventory, and just give up the option to paint. The RBG system was entirely irrelevant I believe, it's the method of selecting a colour and "painting" that SE has.

So instead of hauling around red/green/blue/etc, you just have to carry Grey + paint (of the same colours we already have).
Would save a lot of inventory space (if you stored paint like you did credits), but I never did colouring in SE, so I dunno how annoying it might be.

 

[lazarus78]

The Space Engineers method uses RGB colors. If you're gonna link a video on the Space Engineers method, I'm going to assume you mean RGB color changing.

Now, if you mean that we have a ton of hull blocks for a bunch of RBG variations, that is also not really possible, due to a maximum block ID limit of 1024.

Forgive me for not being clear.

The game already has all the color blocks, so rather then saving color data with each block, the game can just "swap" blocks.

So lets say I make a ship out of gray blocks, then I want to paint a red stripe. I open a menu, select red, then middle mouse + drag where I want to paint. In the background, the game is just deleting the existing gray blocks and replacing it with the red blocks that already exist in the game.

This way we only need to carry a single stack of blocks, and we can paint with whatever colors already exist. No need to save RGB data to each block, and no new IDs are necessary.

Also want to say sorry if this method has already been explored and deemed impractical. I don't browse the forums too deeply.

 

[Jananton]

Since there's no disagree button anymore I have to say it in writing.
I hate this idea, crafting is already crippled too much to my taste because of public opinion and having to carry different color and types of hull is just something that adds to the strategic side of the game.
And, have you thought about how painting in weightlessness would work, paint floating around everywhere but were you want it.

Greets,

Jan

 

[молоток]

Since there's no disagree button anymore I have to say it in writing.
I hate this idea, crafting is already crippled too much to my taste because of public opinion and having to carry different color and types of hull is just something that adds to the strategic side of the game.
And, have you thought about how painting in weightlessness would work, paint floating around everywhere but were you want it.

Greets,

Jan

I feel I have to stand up for this idea:
there is nothing strategic about needing to carry several colors of hull: thinking strategically you can use any color you like and it will be just as effectively. If the game had different colors have different effects, THAT would be strategic, and I have considered suggesting that for a custom config file.

As to painting in Zero Gravity: the solution is simple. Use a Van De Graff Generator to apply a static charge to the exterior metal of a ship. Suddenly the paint goes right to the metal and sticks until dry, with no spillage {as long as you don't touch the bare metal} There is nothing unrealistic about applying paint in zero G.

 

[HerrColonel]

having to carry different color and types of hull is just something that adds to the strategic side of the game

I agree this game lacks challenge but this? No offense but I see this more like an annoyance