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This idea is meant to help speed up building rather interestingly. You just provide a blueprint and the resources, than the construction beam computer goes to work. Now it won't expend the BP like we do currently when it fully spawns something and it builds it over time rather than all at once. The general idea here is to let people have ship or station factories that can build things and if set to do so auto dock them.
Here's a setup.
Construction Beam Computer: Can be linked to any number of Construction Beam Modules, storage, and other Construction Beam Computers providing it is the main one. If linked to a storage area it will check for both blueprints and resources. It will build BPs in the order it finds them but it won't expend them like we do normally to spawn things from BPs. It will simply use the BP as a ref to figure out what to build and how. By default it searches the inventory of the last player to either place the computer, enter it, or turn it on.
Linking multiple computers has a slightly different effect than having multiple groups of modules. Linking multiple computers lets you set restricted areas for each one to work in when building something but also lets you build multiple copies of something at the same time as well. If the master computer has the area overlapping with the areas of the secondary computers they will assume they are working on a different part of the larger object. If the master area and the secondary areas aren't overlapping they'll assume they are working on different copies of the same object.
Linking to a rail of some kind in the build area tells the Computer to look for a Rail Docker on what it is building and it even checks if the finished BP has enough space to spawn. In the case of multiple rail dockers detected it will simply pick one at random each time it goes to make the BP in question again. If no rail docker is found in this case it will simply not build the BP in question.
Construction Beam Module: More of these in connected groups the more powerful the beam becomes and the longer range it has. Having many independent groups means that each group will work on it's own section of what is being built or help speed up the work of another group.
Note the Construction Beams will not start a new build if there is something in the build area but can also be set to replace missing blocks from something if the BP of the ship and what it has in storage are the same. It will check for missing blocks from the stored BP and fill the gaps. This will only work if the BP stored and the BP of the damaged ship fully match without any damage. The Construction Beam however doesn't repair or replace damaged blocks just missing ones.
You might notice I avoided using exact numbers if able when coming up with the idea because of both being unsure what they'd be and not wanting to cause a small firestorm over what the numbers should be.
This idea is mainly for those that'd like to automate ship and station building more. Keep in mind it only fully works if the resources to keep building are there and once it starts a build unless you tell it not to continue it will keep going until done and just wait for more resources if out of them. You can kill a build by simply removing the BP it is using from the computer or the linked storage area. Starting a build is as simple as linking to a storage area that has a BP in it or giving the computer one directly.
In any event any ideas?
Here's a setup.
Construction Beam Computer: Can be linked to any number of Construction Beam Modules, storage, and other Construction Beam Computers providing it is the main one. If linked to a storage area it will check for both blueprints and resources. It will build BPs in the order it finds them but it won't expend them like we do normally to spawn things from BPs. It will simply use the BP as a ref to figure out what to build and how. By default it searches the inventory of the last player to either place the computer, enter it, or turn it on.
Linking multiple computers has a slightly different effect than having multiple groups of modules. Linking multiple computers lets you set restricted areas for each one to work in when building something but also lets you build multiple copies of something at the same time as well. If the master computer has the area overlapping with the areas of the secondary computers they will assume they are working on a different part of the larger object. If the master area and the secondary areas aren't overlapping they'll assume they are working on different copies of the same object.
Linking to a rail of some kind in the build area tells the Computer to look for a Rail Docker on what it is building and it even checks if the finished BP has enough space to spawn. In the case of multiple rail dockers detected it will simply pick one at random each time it goes to make the BP in question again. If no rail docker is found in this case it will simply not build the BP in question.
Construction Beam Module: More of these in connected groups the more powerful the beam becomes and the longer range it has. Having many independent groups means that each group will work on it's own section of what is being built or help speed up the work of another group.
Note the Construction Beams will not start a new build if there is something in the build area but can also be set to replace missing blocks from something if the BP of the ship and what it has in storage are the same. It will check for missing blocks from the stored BP and fill the gaps. This will only work if the BP stored and the BP of the damaged ship fully match without any damage. The Construction Beam however doesn't repair or replace damaged blocks just missing ones.
You might notice I avoided using exact numbers if able when coming up with the idea because of both being unsure what they'd be and not wanting to cause a small firestorm over what the numbers should be.
This idea is mainly for those that'd like to automate ship and station building more. Keep in mind it only fully works if the resources to keep building are there and once it starts a build unless you tell it not to continue it will keep going until done and just wait for more resources if out of them. You can kill a build by simply removing the BP it is using from the computer or the linked storage area. Starting a build is as simple as linking to a storage area that has a BP in it or giving the computer one directly.
In any event any ideas?
