Building Beam Tool

[kiddan]

So I had a nifty idea inspired by Trekkerjoe 's Mechaplatform MKI, it's a working walker that drills holes for the legs to grab onto so that it may turn any flat planet surface into a working battlefield! Pretty much, as you walk around a whole ton there is just more and more holes and eventually the walker is doomed to run outta space to actually walk.

Henceforth I present to you a suggestion that would allow us to walk forever, to take a larger step and- Whatever, I've wasted enough time already.

Suggestion: A Building Beam

The Idea in Basic: A computer and barrel modules that are linked to storage units, the scale of the barrel determines how fast it places blocks, and the storage units supply blocks to place.

Pros:

• Easily fix holes in ships mid-battle
• Fill holes just after you make them so you can re-use surfaces later
• Create obstacles, with some logic you could make some pretty sick Skid-Racing tracks!
• Use as a messy building tool, achieve a natural look slightly easier
• Set up logic to place public permission modules for a higher level of control
• Took ages to think of cons

Cons:

• Abusive faction members could cause a lot of damage and/or cover allied ships with warhead blocks
• A lack of control when placing blocks with multiple possible orientations makes placing rails and-the-like pretty useless

Balance:

• There would be a new option per faction rank, deciding whether that rank may use Build Beams (on faction-claimed ships, not neutral ones)
• Players can only use Build Beams on neutral and faction-claimed ships and structures, not enemy ones
• Because cargo still has weight players cannot use this to store weapons in a lighter form and then construct their mega-cannon on demand without having to haul the weight along.
• Just like transporters, shields will be dropped (or being lowered would also work, just placing one block and having shields drop would be nasty) when fired. This makes hull-repairing ships much more balanced but not useless.

 

[StarWars1981]

Hate to poke holes in it, it's a really nice, useful idea, but ...
Build Mode / Build Block
Also ... the exploits would be absolute murder. Just murder. Somebody, somewhere, would find a way to break the game with it.
Oh wait ... clipping, lag, docking exploits ... yeah.
But I can see this being used, unless restricted beyond belief, to damage playability. Also it doesn't seem to fill much of a niche that we can't already fill. However, because I can see it being fun, I'm kinda neutral on it, it'd be interesting but I'm not sure it's worth the time to put in. Nice idea, though, pretty unique actually.

 

[kiddan]

Build Mode / Build Block

Eh, the problem the beam is supposed to fix is the fact that you can't place blocks via the press of a button (the logic block one) or use a Build Block to edit/fix an allied ship from another one.

Oh wait ... clipping, lag, docking exploits ... yeah.

The beam would, of course, check before placing a block whether the space in question is free or not. A fair reload for firing the beam would be quite forgiving, not having nearly so many checks being ran in a few seconds.

Also it doesn't seem to fill much of a niche that we can't already fill.

But the beam is for filling niches! :p
Really though, we can't fill in traction-holes we dig for mechs unless we jump outta the mech to do it.

 

[StarWars1981]

Okay, I see your point.
And the exploits mentioned were other ones, not related to this one.
I'd like to see it, I'm just not sure it's worth the time when the dev team keeps hinting that they'll get us tons of epic features, but they won't tell us what .... grrrr.

 

[Madman198237]

I think that giving a similar functionality to the astrotechnobeam would be better. Allow it to replace destroyed blocks as well as repair damaged ones. Also, give it an area of effect, or even just a slower repair speed and full-ship effect, i.e. repairs replaces blocks all over the ship.

 

[kiddan]

I think that giving a similar functionality to the astrotechnobeam would be better. Allow it to replace destroyed blocks as well as repair damaged ones. Also, give it an area of effect, or even just a slower repair speed and full-ship effect, i.e. repairs replaces blocks all over the ship.

Hmm, now that I actually think of it, this would definitely be much more ideal! Not only would it reduce (and pretty much remove) the griefing capabilities but it could also just be an update to the Astrotech Beam, no new IDs or anything.

 

[StarWars1981]

The astrotech beam sure could use this kind of update. It needs to be able to repair ships built in a shipyard to a blueprint ... that gives it more functionality. Plus, an AoE would remove the need to actually strip armor OFF to repair everything inside ... xD

 

[kiddan]

Plus, an AoE would remove the need to actually strip armor OFF to repair everything inside ... xD

Dang yea, piercing weapons are such a pain to clean up after atm.

 

[Madman198237]

A slow repair (By using a design stored in the CORE of a ship, an idea that Schine's mentioned) via astrotechnobeam (Spread around the entire ship, no matter where the beam hits) would give fleet tenders a reason to exist.

Well, that and shipping consumables to allies...once we get something consumable.

 

[Durendal5150]

Gonna throw this out here as an addition. Such a beam could probably also be used to construct stations from a design in some fashion, allowing something like a 'fleet->build station', command. Could make setting up gate networks far less of a hassle.

 

[StarWars1981]

Consumables = repair packages. Complicated to produce, involving several stages, they can have nigh-infinite numbers of armor, hull, and systems blocks stacked in them and can then be carried on any ship that can fit them. Astro-techno beams can use from these packages.
New block!
Also, this means ships CANNOT be allowed to astrotech themselves, at all. Far too OP.

 

[ltmauve]

Consumables = repair packages. Complicated to produce, involving several stages, they can have nigh-infinite numbers of armor, hull, and systems blocks stacked in them and can then be carried on any ship that can fit them. Astro-techno beams can use from these packages.

So like blocks?

If anything, a repair pack that's more compact (storage-wise) than the blocks that made it would be a good idea.
Astrotechs should still be allowed to use the blocks themselves but it would require the exact blocks needed instead of just "repair packs"

 

[StarWars1981]

This repair pack is basically a storage that can be placed in other storages. It occupies the same amount of space, it's just easier to lug around.
And it can be used by an astrotech beam slaved to the storage it's in.
However, if it's expensive enough to make one, the repair pack can be allowed to break physics and such and cram blocks into even LESS space than they already fit into. (one-meter-cubes fit in my pocket now, by the 10,000s!!!)

 

[ltmauve]

Honestly I think that having a repair pack be worth a certain amount of HP that can be repaired would actually make them worthwhile. You could use whatever's lying around to repair your ships instead of having to deal with the exact logistics of what blocks you need to repair.

 

[Trekkerjoe]

I know this is an old suggestion, but after the relatively recent chunk update, and reading a post by NeonSturm , It occurs to me that this subject should be revisited. What is the prognosis? Does this update help or hinder this type of feature?

 

[HolyCookie]

Hello, this idea has been stuck in my head for last 5 weeks not knowing there was a suggestion put up already. The possibilities with this can be so endless. If you are crazy enough you could possibly make some kind of drone thing with a smart enough AI to build miners to get more ores to get more miners. and even crazier make a drone colony that populates a planet and creates "things" on planets.

I would go for a design like rails,
change block type and orientation like you'd do with rails and place a block by activating the computer with a logic high signal (or hot bar signal)