Recognized Gravity modules and logic

[Hemmingfish]

I've been trying to make a two-way gravity tunnel which involves the use of logic. The problem is that gravity modules do not work if there's anything between the initial activation module and them. I would like them to be able to be used with logic.

Right now this works:

This does not:

Logically you'd figure they'd be identical. With regards to anything else in the game, they are. Gravity modules in particular don't play nicely with this setup.

Not sure if it's a bug, but I'd like them to play nicely. There's probably an ugly workaround, but there shouldn't be.

 

[splatthecat]

I find gravity modules annoying too! The number of times i have set foot outside my station and gone plummeting down!

Display modules should be able to display gravity on/off!

I tried to build a gravity lift on a small ship but I stripped it out because logic couldn't interact with it properly.

I did build a "for fun" simulation of being sucked out of an airlock using gravity but while my station has several dotted about, I tend to float around.

 

[HolyCookie]

I don't even understand why that doesn't work. Also, I think you shouldn't be obligated to put a logic block next to an area trigger in order to get a signal. Can't agree more that this should be fixed, as it is more likely a bug than a feature.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I don't even understand why that doesn't work. Also, I think you shouldn't be obligated to put a logic block next to an area trigger in order to get a signal. Can't agree more that this should be fixed, as it is more likely a bug than a feature.

Anytime one block is required to be next to another block in order to function it is not because of a design choice but a limitation of the connection system. This is the reason for area triggers and permission modules. If Schema one day finds a solution to this limitation I am sure he will implement it because let's be honest, nobody like being forced to put ugly permission modules next to everything they want to allow access to.

The problem with gravity and logic is the system has no way to carry a user ID with a logic signal. When you trigger and activator, YOU trigger it directly so the game knows who to apply gravity to. When you enter an area trigger area the game knows you did this so it knows who to apply the gravity to.

More gravity control is a much needed feature. I really want the ability to specifically SET and REMOVE gravity instead of toggle so I can guarantee gravity upon entry and no gravity when exiting my ships. Toggle ability is just to easy to hit twice to get into the wrong state. If this were the case you could simply have set gravity down at either end of a gravity tube and a button that will send you down it.

 

[lupoCani]

As Sven_The_Slayer said, this is a technical limitation.

If I might shamelessly insert a suggestion of my own, I think it would be much more practical (programming-wise) if we could instead define behaviors for the gravity modules. A while back, I wrote a more detailed suggestion to this effect, which would apply to most use-cases I've seen- "setting" gravity, two-way elevators, disabling gravity modules altogether, etc.

In a nutshell, we could slave gravity to gravity. If for example a downwards-pointing module had a downwards-pointing and a forwards-pointing slave, it wouldn't work for people already in downwards or forwards gravity. Add to that disabling gravity modules with slaved logic modules, the same way we can turn off rail rotators, and I think we'd be pretty much set.

 

[Madman198237]

Perhaps, in order to get around the limitation of tracking player names, give gravity modules a radius in which to work?

Or, even better, give players the ability to define an area in which a gravity generator will work. You use logic to toggle a gravity generator that is set to have an area of effect and EVERY PLAYER in that area is affected by the change. In other words, you define a cylinder in which two grav generators work. One of them sends you floating up, the other down, and depending on how you enter the tube, you activate a different generator, and go a different direction.

 

[ltmauve]

What about using adjacency to trigger the gravity (so the area controller next to the gravity) and using logic to control it? Would that get around the system limitations?

In addition, the activation bit of the gravity module determines how it works. HIGH means add gravity to the player, LOW means remove gravity from the player.

Also, add toggleability to area trigger controllers as well. Basically, I'd want to turn those on and off.

 

[jayman38]

Gravity needs to be an area effect instead of a per-entity effect.

Benefits:
Logic becomes easy
You can set the gravity field to end at the extent of your own airlock, by moving a gravity generator where you need it.
When astronauts want to go into two different directions in the same gravity elevator, the issue will be who gains priority over the elevator direction, and the traffic jam is at the end of the shaft where there is an exit to relieve the congestion instead of the middle.
It makes more sense and matches what you see in other SciFi media.
It will require a whole gravity generator network for large ships, instead of only needing one tiny generator for one whole titan. (It sounds like a waste of blocks at first, but it promotes creative, skilled building and realistic engineering.)

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Gravity needs to be an area effect instead of a per-entity effect.

Benefits:
Logic becomes easy
You can set the gravity field to end at the extent of your own airlock, by moving a gravity generator where you need it.
When astronauts want to go into two different directions in the same gravity elevator, the issue will be who gains priority over the elevator direction, and the traffic jam is at the end of the shaft where there is an exit to relieve the congestion instead of the middle.
It makes more sense and matches what you see in other SciFi media.
It will require a whole gravity generator network for large ships, instead of only needing one tiny generator for one whole titan. (It sounds like a waste of blocks at first, but it promotes creative, skilled building and realistic engineering.)

That's already more or less possible. You can move docked entities with area triggers around to change gravity for a player. The only problem is they are linked to the gravity on that docked entity and not the ship itself. Even if it was changed to allow players to align to the mother-ship and not the docked entity I still don't think it's the solution we need. You would have to dedicate a lot of machinery, logic, and free space for moving parts.

 

[Criss]

Bench has talked about extensive changes to gravity as well as logic in the past. I am sure he has some input.

 

[Bench]

As Sven_The_Slayer pointed out, it is indeed a limitation currently of how the connection system works, due to the "wireless" nature of logic blocks compared to the adjacent system of something like minecraft. It's great that we don't need to place long lines of wires etc to build our circuits, allowing them to be quite compact, but that also requires a fair amount of I/O data to enable that. Having to handle additional meta data like player data would exacerbate issues with existing load times with logic. It is planned to be reviewed and optimized, and a lot of these major issues that exist with it should hopefully have solutions found. But it won't be until then that we will actually open up the ability to expand logic to support more extensive control over mechanics that directly interact with the player, such as gravity.