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

[Jananton]

Hmm, I still hate the idea. It implies that you can create only grey hull types and then paint them. The strategy is the fact that for every other then grey color you need other ores for standard and advanced hulls that you maybe should better use for something else.
If you can just paint any armor type on the spot you're just ruining another part of the crafting system and that's exactly one of the fun parts of the game in my book.

Greets,

Jan

 

[lazarus78]

Hmm, I still hate the idea. It implies that you can create only grey hull types and then paint them. The strategy is the fact that for every other then grey color you need other ores for standard and advanced hulls that you maybe should better use for something else.
If you can just paint any armor type on the spot you're just ruining another part of the crafting system and that's exactly one of the fun parts of the game in my book.

Greets,

Jan

So you are building a ship out of.. lets say blue blocks. But oh no, you ran out. But you have 10,000 red blocks. What logical reason would you have to justify NOT being able to paint them blue, when their stats are exactly the same as the blue?

Its complexity for the sake of complexity. It doesn't ad any meaningful challenge to the game, just the annoyance of trying to find the materials for more blue blocks. Never mind the stack of red you are lugging around.

 

[Thalanor]

Yup. Color is meaningless in the game, so applying it should be without hassle. The current system is an artificial annoyance, it does not add tactical depth, actually much worse - it promotes purely grey builds.

List of things starmade game mechanics promote heavily:
- cubes
- grey armor or none at all

List of things players want in starmade:
- interestingly shaped ships
- color variance on ships

Why add to that discrepancy with adding an artificial constraint? It is not even realistic to assume that something can only be painted once.

If you want trading/strategical economy, then promote that with vital system blocks everyone needs - instead of punishing roleplayers/designers AGAIN, like in every other game mechanic starmade has to offer. I recently introduced a friend to the game, and I was not able to answer the question "why should I not build a grey cube?" with anything other than "It'll look bad and admins might ban it". Let's just take a first step towards reducing the hostility between game mechanics and aesthetics, and make coloring less daunting.

 

[Jananton]

So you are building a ship out of.. lets say blue blocks. But oh no, you ran out. But you have 10,000 red blocks. What logical reason would you have to justify NOT being able to paint them blue, when their stats are exactly the same as the blue?

You are contradicting yourself here, in the situation you seem to like you'd never have 10000 red blocks, they would all be grey and would have needed only one type of ore and that's just my point. At the moment with the difficulty of discovering Larimar asteroids I'd rather create shields then any blue hull types that use the same raw materials for instance. The fact that colored hull blocks can only be upgraded to standard and advanced using certain ores to keep color and hull integrity is a typical incentive in the game to get the right raw materials for your designs and shouldn't be left along the way side.

And, in what Universe isn't the availability of raw materials to decide what to build not role playing by the way? The same goes for designing, you need to create with what you've got or go hunting for new resources, not daunting at all.

Greets,

Jan

 

[lazarus78]

You are contradicting yourself here, in the situation you seem to like you'd never have 10000 red blocks, they would all be grey and would have needed only one type of ore and that's just my point. At the moment with the difficulty of discovering Larimar asteroids I'd rather create shields then any blue hull types that use the same raw materials for instance. The fact that colored hull blocks can only be upgraded to standard and advanced using certain ores to keep color and hull integrity is a typical incentive in the game to get the right raw materials for your designs and shouldn't be left along the way side.

And, in what Universe isn't the availability of raw materials to decide what to build not role playing by the way? The same goes for designing, you need to create with what you've got or go hunting for new resources, not daunting at all.

Greets,

Jan

But color restriction is an artificial barrier. We can make paint out of almost anything these days, so why would color of hulls be dictated ONLY by the material around? If you are using different materials to make the hulls, then I would expect different stats, not different color.

I would prefer using those materials for different types of hulls that offer different benefits, and leave the painting up to the player, as it should be.