- Joined
- Jan 1, 2015
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So first post!
THE PROBLEM
Say you want to create a few Grey Standard Hulls, you'd have to move Meshes and Crystals from your Refinery to the Basic Factory by hand. From there the crafted Basic Grey Hull would have to be moved by hand to the Standard Factory along with Sapsun and Macet Capsules. Now that may not be a huge issue but lets say you own a shop and you want to sell what you just made, this means you have to pull those items out, and manually search them up in a shop and set the amount you're putting in. This can't be done from a build block and if you're moving or doing anything large it means a lot of menu moving.
THE IDEA
But what if instead, blocks sent a "Need" signal for items, you could have say your Factories linked to the Refinery, from here you could start with the Standard factory and tell it you want it to make the Standard Hull, it would call out for the blocks for the materials first to inventories and if it finds any of the materials it needs it will pull them to it. If the Standard factory does not find what its looking for it could call out to any other factories in the network to produce what it needs, which would call out to a Basic Factory that it wants Basic Grey Hull, the Basic factory would do the same as the Standard Factory and call out for the materials it needs, and it being linked to a Refinery it would find the Meshes and Crystals it needs and start creating. This could be chained to easily create larger more expensive blocks a lot easier. Also to alleviate the Basic factory from constantly producing after you get what you need from the Standard Factory, instead of the current system of them being always on or off, you request how many you want to craft and it will output the "Need" signal as long as it has an open order. In Factories this means that as long as one of them needs parts built from lower tier ones it will have the constantly produce until it meets its quota which it will then stop the "Need" signal and shut off production from the other Factories.
SHOPS
Now about the shop, I purpose instead of the shop module itself holding all of the block amount data it has to be linked to an inventory. Another change to go with the "Need" system would be how shops operate on its inventory, a player owned shop would be able to set how many of an block he wants in his shop at all times, this inturn would send out "Need" signals to anything connected to its inventory, which if its linked to a factory would produce the amount and fill the shop's inventory making it easier and more viable for player run shops to refill stock.
SHIPYARDS AND YOU
This same system can also be applied to a shipyard's inventory allowing for easier construction on a player's or faction's home station. If a build order is given to a shipyard, it would send "Need" signals for the blocks it needs through its inventories, allowing factories to facilitate its request.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND BEAMS
With the "Need" system in mind there comes something much request from players, a way to transfer and take items between ships without having to get out of your ship, grab the items, take them to where you want them and then back into your ship. Instead I purpose a pair of beams that can be linked to inventories, the Supply Beam will need to be fired into another inventory, this will take items from the inventory linked to the Supply Beam and send them to the other inventory where as the Demand Beam will do the opposite drawing items from an exposed inventory into its linked inventory. This will allow say a miner to mine a lot of resources and just beam them down onto a station which will refine them and use them for whatever maybe set.
ASTROTECH
The issue I have with Astrotech beams is that while helpful they're extremely unhelpful. I've noticed in Starmade battles are very decisive you either get blown to bits because of someones larger ship or you manage to barely get away with just half of your ship intact. Astrotech doesn't replace blocks and very few times will have not be missing blocks and only need surface healing. With the idea that ships may be able to have a blueprint uploaded into them in the future to allow retrofits and repairs at Shipyards, why not go further with the idea and make Astrotech useful by making it repair and restore blocks? Similar to the Supply/Demand Beams, the Astrotech Beam will be linked to an inventory and will go through blocks expect cores, when the Astrotech Beam hits a core it will repair/build/restore blocks based upon the blueprint installed on the ship, any blocks it removes will be placed in its inventory, and any blocks placed must be inside the inventory for it to do so, it will also still have its ability to heal and repair blocks but it will only need to hit the core. For abit of balance, an Astrotech beam cannot be used on a structure it is docked or attached to.
Thats what I have so far, if you have any questions, opinions, discuss below! I really wanna hear what you guys think of the idea.
THE PROBLEM
Say you want to create a few Grey Standard Hulls, you'd have to move Meshes and Crystals from your Refinery to the Basic Factory by hand. From there the crafted Basic Grey Hull would have to be moved by hand to the Standard Factory along with Sapsun and Macet Capsules. Now that may not be a huge issue but lets say you own a shop and you want to sell what you just made, this means you have to pull those items out, and manually search them up in a shop and set the amount you're putting in. This can't be done from a build block and if you're moving or doing anything large it means a lot of menu moving.
THE IDEA
But what if instead, blocks sent a "Need" signal for items, you could have say your Factories linked to the Refinery, from here you could start with the Standard factory and tell it you want it to make the Standard Hull, it would call out for the blocks for the materials first to inventories and if it finds any of the materials it needs it will pull them to it. If the Standard factory does not find what its looking for it could call out to any other factories in the network to produce what it needs, which would call out to a Basic Factory that it wants Basic Grey Hull, the Basic factory would do the same as the Standard Factory and call out for the materials it needs, and it being linked to a Refinery it would find the Meshes and Crystals it needs and start creating. This could be chained to easily create larger more expensive blocks a lot easier. Also to alleviate the Basic factory from constantly producing after you get what you need from the Standard Factory, instead of the current system of them being always on or off, you request how many you want to craft and it will output the "Need" signal as long as it has an open order. In Factories this means that as long as one of them needs parts built from lower tier ones it will have the constantly produce until it meets its quota which it will then stop the "Need" signal and shut off production from the other Factories.
SHOPS
Now about the shop, I purpose instead of the shop module itself holding all of the block amount data it has to be linked to an inventory. Another change to go with the "Need" system would be how shops operate on its inventory, a player owned shop would be able to set how many of an block he wants in his shop at all times, this inturn would send out "Need" signals to anything connected to its inventory, which if its linked to a factory would produce the amount and fill the shop's inventory making it easier and more viable for player run shops to refill stock.
SHIPYARDS AND YOU
This same system can also be applied to a shipyard's inventory allowing for easier construction on a player's or faction's home station. If a build order is given to a shipyard, it would send "Need" signals for the blocks it needs through its inventories, allowing factories to facilitate its request.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND BEAMS
With the "Need" system in mind there comes something much request from players, a way to transfer and take items between ships without having to get out of your ship, grab the items, take them to where you want them and then back into your ship. Instead I purpose a pair of beams that can be linked to inventories, the Supply Beam will need to be fired into another inventory, this will take items from the inventory linked to the Supply Beam and send them to the other inventory where as the Demand Beam will do the opposite drawing items from an exposed inventory into its linked inventory. This will allow say a miner to mine a lot of resources and just beam them down onto a station which will refine them and use them for whatever maybe set.
ASTROTECH
The issue I have with Astrotech beams is that while helpful they're extremely unhelpful. I've noticed in Starmade battles are very decisive you either get blown to bits because of someones larger ship or you manage to barely get away with just half of your ship intact. Astrotech doesn't replace blocks and very few times will have not be missing blocks and only need surface healing. With the idea that ships may be able to have a blueprint uploaded into them in the future to allow retrofits and repairs at Shipyards, why not go further with the idea and make Astrotech useful by making it repair and restore blocks? Similar to the Supply/Demand Beams, the Astrotech Beam will be linked to an inventory and will go through blocks expect cores, when the Astrotech Beam hits a core it will repair/build/restore blocks based upon the blueprint installed on the ship, any blocks it removes will be placed in its inventory, and any blocks placed must be inside the inventory for it to do so, it will also still have its ability to heal and repair blocks but it will only need to hit the core. For abit of balance, an Astrotech beam cannot be used on a structure it is docked or attached to.
Thats what I have so far, if you have any questions, opinions, discuss below! I really wanna hear what you guys think of the idea.
