Decorative Emitters

[Billazilla]

I had a minor idea while designing my next ship, and couldn't think of a good way to implement it. I'm suggesting a Decorative Emitter block. It would be a short quad pyramid, point being centered in the voxel. Activating the block brings up an options menu with a drop-down for choosing a type of beam effect emitted . There would also be an Active check box available that could be toggled on/off with Logic blocks. The Emitter would project a harmless, intangible energy effect from the center point and into the next block it faces (like Thrusters do). Selecting the Emitter in build mode and linking it to another block would draw the effect from the center point of the Emitter to the center of the linked block.

Effect types could be things like Solid Beam, Electric, Flame, Pulse, Mist, Flowing Plasma, and other such generic but visually interesting things. They could be static sprites or animated, or flowing textures going from Emitter to linked block.

The Emitters effects could be used in cosmetic construction of a number of impressive effects to add dynamic creations to your ships, stations, and bases.
EXAMPLES:

• Multi-beam lasers like the Death Star from Star Wars
• A massive reactor with arcing energy nodes
• A pulsating warp core in your engine room
• Light array for a solar sail
• Data beams for your central processor
• Logo/symbol on the side of your vessel
• Decontamination rooms
  
• Laser fences & security detectors for visual representation of logic triggers
• Telepad transmission beams
  
• Impressive disco display in your station's nightclub

Lastly, the Emitters themselves could also be paintable, but the effect itself would be colored independently, either in the drop down or some other way, such as a selectable color menu with the effect textures being neutral. Or they could be not colored, whatever. Purple lightning would probably look dumb, anyway.

 

[jayman38]

Calbiri mentioned in my similarly-themed suggestion thread that particle emitters were planned. That was the last I heard about it. Link below:

http://starmadedock.net/threads/new-decoration-block-idea-colored-linear-particle-emitters.5794/

I'm not sure, but it might be a part of the graphics update listed on the StarMade Roadmap:

https://trello.com/b/9Kg5Jn6g/starmade-roadmap

Edit:
I can imagine linking various effects computers to the emitter block to get different emissions, as described in the OP.
Link lights to the emitter to change the particle color.
For different colors on the emitter itself, you'd have to use multiple BlockIDs and simply have a different emitter block for each color. Or you could have the emitter block as a single color and hide it behind hull or something and allow the particles to pass through the hull, similar to how weapons and effects pass through hull blocks now.

 

[Billazilla]

Oh dang, thought I was being original. Well, glad to see it's confirmed, at least. Can't wait!