Compress all the block types into one item?

[Giegue]

You know how various hull blocks like plextanium and brown hull have various different forms like ramp, Penta and Tetra?
You know how they all take up their own individual slots in your inventory and only seem to serve to waste your time when building and make collecting loot a pain?
Well i have a solution.
Instead of having each type take up its own slot, Why not just have the basic block taking up a slot, And make the player able to change the block type being placed in the advanced build menu?
It'll help streamline the building menu while at the same time making it far easier to add in more block types later in.

 

[Krazykat]

And while we're at saving Block IDs, screw all the different colors that we need in our inventory, make it simply an option while we're building to change the color of any hull we put down in the advanced build menu

 

[NeonSturm]

The best thing for me (jet) is:
* have a shape
* a component to fill this shape - (hardened or) hull material? even plex?
* * once we will get wedges with 1/2 weight but 1/2 hp, they may need only 1/2 components.
* * maybe blocks will use different components to merge all cpus together (cpu = 1 module + chip?) and save even more space
* something to decorate/colour

requiring colour and shape in your inventory could be an option.

Spoiler: Partially off-topic regarding inventory

I would like all important every-ship parts in bottom row: core, power, thrust, 2x shield, faction module (cockpit) - fill row with helmet and gun
The second line should have less important like tank, 1 weapon cpu+modules, gravity, ...
Parts which belong together should be together (cpu+modules, different colors/shapes/levels of same thing, all ores, ...)

But every time I want something new in my hot-key bar, it gets shuffled around (if you don't waste time keeping it sorted).

I would like the hot-key bar linking 1 row of your inventory which should now hold 10 additional slots which are not stored in your hot-key (inventory-)bar anymore

 

[Megacrafter127]

As nice this idea is, there isn't enough data per block in blueprints to allow this.
Also, the old id's would still be occupied to allow people to load old bps.

 

[Krazykat]

Megacrafter127 who are you responding to?

 

[Planr]

Megacrafter127 who are you responding to?

Are you just pretending to be oblivious or what? He's obviously talking to the OP, as well as openly to the rest of the people in this thread.

And while we're at saving Block IDs, screw all the different colors that we need in our inventory, make it simply an option while we're building to change the color of any hull we put down in the advanced build menu

Have you actually thought of the amount of negative effects such a system would cause to the game?

The factory system would lose a substantial amount of purpose, as there would no longer be any purpose to having factory machines set up for creating hull blocks with paint, or creating different types of hull blocks with the factory processes.

Just like Megacrafter said, it would royally screw over old blueprints and people would no longer be able to use their old ships. That is an unacceptable loss.

It also makes the game more boring and redundant as real challenges such as supply and demand, plus resource gathering, of different hulls, goes away. We would lose two substantial gameplay elements in that regard. People will have a far too easy time getting everything they need right when they need it, rather than relying on trade and bartering with other players for resources.

 

[Krazykat]

so you would rather remove the capability for any new blocks to be introduced because we've run out of block IDs to use? make it so paint is still necessary in the inventory to place a colored hull down then, so it preserves some of the factory system.

(also Megacrafter did not specify a person, and there are 3 earlier replies with completely different suggestions, so stop insulting and focus on the thread)

 

[Planr]

so you would rather remove the capability for any new blocks to be introduced because we've run out of block IDs to use? make it so paint is still necessary in the inventory to place a colored hull down then, so it preserves some of the factory system.

You clearly do not understand how Block IDs work. Regardless of whether or not you organize blocks of different shapes and types into a single inventory stack slot, each physical block as it appears in-game takes up one Block ID. Introducing the system you and the OP are supporting would not remove any actual Block IDs in the current game but rather oversimplify the way they are organized in inventories (additionally reducing the economic potentials of trading different colors and shapes of hull blocks, as the new universal inventory item of hull can be changed into any shape or color of hull you want). We have a limited amount of color choices for hull blocks for a reason; the game mechanics required to provide differently-colored hulls necessitates that each color of hull requires a Block ID and its own personal texture. You will notice this fact in how the same colors of blocks look shaded or hued slightly differently from texture pack to texture pack.

(also Megacrafter did not specify a person, and there are 3 earlier replies with completely different suggestions, so stop insulting and focus on the thread)

I mean no offense. But, if you read his post and look at the context clues in it, it becomes very obvious who megacrafter is addressing.
If you're still having difficulty figuring that out, let me help you:

Megacrafter mentioned that each individual block type in blueprints cannot function with the newly-organized system of hull blocks in inventories that the OP is presenting an argument in favor of. He then goes on to explain how the individual Block IDs for each hull block, both of color and shape, would need to stay as it is in the game, in order for old blueprints to work. This essentially means that if people wanted to still use their old blueprints under the proposed system of the OP, the game would have to somehow retain the current system of block organization for the old ship saves to both load correctly, and have their hull blocks be dissected into the inventory when picked up.

Personally, I disagree with him on that; the system the OP is presenting does not actually necessitate or require the removal or addition of any new Block IDs, but rather another method of organizing how they are kept and transferred and used in inventories. If the OP's idea was implemented, it would not change how the blocks in the blueprint are processed when loaded into the game, but rather how they are collected into the inventory. So really, it wouldn't be an issue.

 

[jayman38]

Personally, I find the need to juggle hulls with different colors (the way it works now) an interesting game mechanic without feeling like I am bogged down in micromanagement. It forces me to keep a locker with different colored hulls, and keep it organized. I enjoy it.

Paint should not be so easy to apply as just slapping it on like house paint. This is Space Paint of the Future (tm), so it's made of sterner stuff, and presumably needs to be applied at a factory, somewhat like powder coating.

Not to say that on-site block painting can't be a fun mod, but I'd prefer it wasn't in the default game.

 

[ltmauve]

One of the reasons I would actually like having the hulls compressed into one ID per type is for salvaging. With only one hull color and no glass, it takes up five inventory slots. Many ships have three or four colors, if you count glass. That's half of your inventory taken right there. And if you really could get every shape out of a single ID, you could improve the game in some other ways (end plug)

 

[NeonSturm]

If you just have to keep "generic block mass", colour and maybe a shape in your inventory it would only be 3+8+5 inventory slots (about 2 rows)

Of-course high-tech materials and colours are not as easy to apply, but you got better high-tech tools also

You can build every shape out of blocks, covered by triangles. why should you not be able to assemble different block shapes out of pre-made parts and apply any plating if you assemble your ship out of small blocks?

 

[Giegue]

As nice this idea is, there isn't enough data per block in blueprints to allow this.
Also, the old id's would still be occupied to allow people to load old bps.

I feel like people are misunderstanding my suggestion.
What i'm suggesting is instead of having a hotbar slot for each individual block type, You simply compress it into 1 slot and then cycle between them via the advanced build menu and it will then update all the slots to show the current block type you're about to place (Basically it resets the item id in your hot bar to one of the same hull colour and amount held but with a different type of hull).
KrazyKat made the next logical step and suggesting this could also be done for block colour types.

This will not change data usage in any way within the game, ships will still be saved the same way. The only difference is how the possible hull types are made avalible to the user and possibly how they are generated in the world.
Once they are generated though it's still the same as the existing block id's.
(Basically what Planr said in his 2nd post ;3).

 

[Megacrafter127]

What i'm suggesting is instead of having a hotbar slot for each individual block type, You simply compress it into 1 slot and then cycle between them via the advanced build menu and it will then update all the slots to show the current block type you're about to place (Basically it resets the item id in your hot bar to one of the same hull colour and amount held but with a different type of hull).

Sorry for misunderstanding your post, but it sounded like what I thought it was.
However, as long as you apply this only to certain blocks(hull in this case), those blocks would need different code to handle their behaviour in the inventory. This is not very hard to do, however it is more prone to glitches, because whenever the inventory handling changes, all handlers would have to be updated in that regard too. While this just poses a little bit more work, if one handler is forgotten, glitches are likely to happen.
However, this is to be expected from games in alpha and would not pose a problem, just a little inconvenience.
Other aspects have already been mentioned by others, and that's now left for me to repeat is that I like this idea.

 

[NeonSturm]

What i'm suggesting is instead of having a hotbar slot for each individual block type, You simply compress it into 1 slot and then cycle between them via the advanced build menu and it will then update all the slots to show the current block type you're about to place (Basically it resets the item id in your hot bar to one of the same hull colour and amount held but with a different type of hull).

Yes I thought you were talking about reducing required inventory slots for different shapes (and maybe colours later).

SPOILER="Partially off-topic regarding inventory"


I would like all important every-ship parts in bottom row: core, power, thrust, 2x shield, faction module (cockpit) - fill row with helmet and gun
The second line should have less important like tank, 1 weapon cpu+modules, gravity, ...
Parts which belong together should be together (cpu+modules, different colors/shapes/levels of same thing, all ores, ...)

But every time I want something new in my hot-key bar, it gets shuffled around (if you don't waste time keeping it sorted).

I would like the hot-key bar linking 1 row of your inventory which should now hold 10 additional slots which are not stored in your hot-key (inventory-)bar any-more.

now my bit of "related but off-topic" inside the spoiler feels on-topic

Imagine hot-bar = links to 10 items in your inventory (show a row, not being an extra row)
Cycle with [hotkey next] and shift-[hotkey next] forward and backward through rows of 10 items in your inventory.

 

[jayman38]

A more advanced, more intelligent way of handling inventory would be a great thing to make Starmade a more sci-fi version of Minecraft. In other words, it makes sense that Minecraft as a simple inventory system, and it would make sense that Starmade has a more sophisticated, science-ey version of inventory.

And Neon, I like your hot-bar-cycle idea. It would add a more science-ey inventory handling to the game. But be careful not to cycle off your helmet in space! That'll be handled later. I bet the devs will implement an armor system into inventory, where you don't just have your helmet in your hotbar. Instead, you are actively wearing the helmet, and it is no longer taking up inventory slots. Again, something similar to Minecraft.